The Best Soup In The World

Everyone is going mad for chicken soup at the moment so I thought I'd share my fave.  This is a recipe I wrote for a friend's cookbook.

For the stock:

A free-range chicken

2 onions

2 sticks celery

2 carrots

Black peppercorns

Salt

For the soup:

Fish sauce

Lemons

Chilli flakes

1 tin of coconut milk

A bunch of coriander

Some spinach leaves

Dried noodles

This is absolutely my favourite meal in the world.  This would be my desert island dish and is the one that I dream about most.  It is, in short, the most kick-ass bowl of food you’ll ever make.

I use a whole chicken for the stock simply because you get a wonderful, rich flavour that you just don’t get from a stock made from a roasted carcass.  It might sound a bit extravagant but it is totally worth it.  You can siphon off and freeze some to make a risotto with so you’ll get at least two meals out of this.

So, first things first and make the stock.  Put your chicken in a big pan with a tight fitting lid, chop the onions, carrots and celery into quarters and add them to the chicken.  Then cover the whole lot with water.  Season with salt and add a few pinches of black peppercorns.  Bring to the boil then simmer with the lid on for about an hour and a half.  Remove from the heat, take out the chicken and set aside then strain the stock and discard the flavouring vegetables.

When you make the soup remember that you’re trying to get a balance of the four S’s; sweet (coconut milk), sour (lemons), salty (fish sauce) and spicy (chilli).  The balance is totally down to your taste so my advice is loosely follow the recipe but keep tasting it and adapt it to your own preference.

So, return the stock to a medium heat and to it add about a teaspoon and a half of chilli flakes, the juice of three lemons (or more or less if you like), about ten shakes of fish sauce and a tin of coconut milk.  Give it about 15 minutes, taste and adjust these flavours to your taste.  When you’re happy, chop up the coriander leaves and add to the soup then give it a blitz with a hand blender.  After you’ve done this, rehydrate the noodles as per the instructions on the packet and take all the meat off the chicken.  Then serve by placing some noodles in a deep bowl, then on top of these put some raw spinach leaves (the heat of the soup will wilt them just so), place some shredded chicken on the spinach and ladle over some of the soup.  Serve with a spoon and some chopsticks and enjoy the best bowl of soup you’ll ever have.