Chicken & Rice Soup with Ginger & Toasted Sesame

This recipe is a republish from 2016, originally inspired by a lunch at a little Korean shop, and long due for an update. If you hadn’t tried this one before, now’s the time! It’s bolder and tastier than ever.

Located in an otherwise uninviting strip mall, “A Cup of Peace” is one of the few places in Boulder serving Korean food. While I have no idea what they put in their recipe for chicken soup, one bowl was enough to inspire me to make my own. An extremely simple soup, the broth is robust with umami, in part because it is doused with soy sauce and sesame oil (which is like liquid gold in the kitchen, isn’t it?).

In a time where we all need a little added comfort in our lives, chicken soup seems like a sort of staple. A healing, cozy staple. Perhaps because I haven’t eaten much of it, classic chicken noodle soup has never been my thing. But the flavors here are very much my thing. (In case you forgot already, toasted sesame oil is liquid gold status in my cupboard).

Chicken & Rice Soup with Ginger & Toasted Sesame

Published March 14, 2020 by Caitlin Sherwood

Serves: 6   |    Active Time: 45 minutes

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Ingredients:

1 tablespoon coconut oil

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 inch ginger, minced or finely grated

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts

8 cups chicken broth

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 tablespoon rice vinegar

1 tablespoon chili garlic paste (Sambal Oelek)

1 teaspoon fish sauce (optional)

1/2 cup dry white rice

1 zucchini

1 summer squash

3 stalks green onion, green and white parts sliced (roots removed)

Drizzle of toasted sesame oil

Salt to taste (Note: depending on your broth, you may not need any salt)

1/4 cup sesame seeds

Directions:

1. In a large soup pot, melt coconut oil over medium heat. Add minced garlic and ginger, and sauté a few minutes, until golden.
2. Pour broth, soy sauce, rice vinegar, chili garlic sauce, and (optionally) fish sauce to the pot, and stir.
3. Bring soup to a simmer, and add chicken breast. Continue to simmer until chicken is cooked through, about 10 minutes. (If using Instant Pot, see note below)
4. Using tongs or a slotted spoon, remove chicken from the broth. Use two forks to shred the chicken. Then, add it back to the soup.
5. Slice zucchini and summer squash into half-moons. Add zucchini, squash and the dried white rice to the soup, and return to a simmer. Cook, uncovered, until the vegetables and rice are tender, about 15 minutes.
6. While soup is cooking, toast sesame seeds: place in a skillet over low heat. Shake the pan every minute or two to stir the seeds. Watch closely to avoid burning, and remove seeds from heat once lightly golden. Set aside.
7. Remove soup from heat. Stir, and optionally season to taste with salt (depending on your broth, you may not need any salt!). Stir in half of the green onions, and drizzle with toasted sesame oil.
8. Ladle into bowls, and garnish with additional green onions and sesame seeds. Serve.

Note: If using an Insant Pot, saute ginger and garlic in bottom of IP using Sauté setting. Add broth, soy sauce, vinegar, chii garlic sauce, fish sauce, chicken, zucchini, summer squash, and dried rice. Turn IP to Manual and set to High Pressure for 7 minutes with valve closed. Allow to naturally release for 5 minutes, then open the valve.

Wontons in Gingery Broth

Happy New Year! We do not have any New Year’s Eve (or day) traditions, though I’d like to make this soup a repeating occurrence.

For many, cooking is purely functional—a thing you do so you can eat. If you’re in that boat, this soup might seem like far too much work, as it asks you to make not just the soup base but also the wontons. For me, cooking an activity in itself, almost—if not more—as enjoyable than the eating. If you’re a let’s-cook-something-interesting DIY-type, this recipe is right up your alley. I admit to one shortcut that I always take: buying wonton wrapper dough. You can find wonton wrappers in the freezer aisle of most Asian Markets (try H Mart or Pacific Ocean).

Making little wontons is fun (they’re cute!) and the soup is fantastic. Any day off from work (even just a standard Sunday) is perfect for this recipe.

Wontons in Gingery Broth

Published January 7, 2020 by Caitlin Sherwood

Serves: 6   |    Active Time: 70 minutes

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Ingredients:

For the Broth:

8 cups chicken broth

2 green onions, roots and white parts removed

1 inch of ginger, cut into thin slices (coin shapes)

3 cloves garlic

For the Wontons:

1/2 pound ground chicken, turkey or pork

2 green onions, roots and dark green parts removed, then minced

1 inch ginger, grated on microplane

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoon sesame oil

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1/16 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 package (30-40 count) soup wonton wrappers, thawed (you can find these frozen at most Asian Markets)

For the Soup:

1 cup snow peas

1 cup shiitake mushrooms

1 carrot, cut into matchsticks

Salt, to taste

For garnish: 2 green onions, sliced

For garnish: 1-2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds for garnish

For garnish: Red chili flakes

Directions:

1. Prepare the wonton filling: In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine ground chicken with the minced green onion, garlic, and grated ginger. Add salt, sesame oil, soy sauce, and ground black pepper. Mix until ingredients are well distributed.
2. Assemble wontons: Prepare your work station by setting up a clean work surface (I use my counter, you can also use piece of parchment paper), and filling a medium-sized bowl with 2 cups of cold water (this will be used for sealing wontons). Working in batches, lay several wonton wrappers out flat on your work surface. Scoop 1 teaspoon of filling into center of wonton wrappers. Be careful not to overfill the wontons, as they will not seal properly. Using a finger dipped in your bowl of cold water, lightly dampen the edges of the wonton wrapper. You need just enough water to get the dough to stick. Now, fold the wontons (see image above as reference): Fold the bottom right corner up to meet the top left corner, creating a triangle. Press the edges with your fingers to seal the wonton. Then, fold the top-right corner of the triangle into the middle of the wonton, followed by the bottom-left corner, using a drop of water to make them stick. Place wontons in a large container with lid (ie., a pyrex or Tupperware). Repeat this step until the wonton filling is all used up. Place lid on container, and set in fridge until ready to use (Can be made in advance and refrigerated for up to 3 hours).
3. Prepare the gingery broth: Pour broth into a large soup pot. Add green onions, ginger slices, and whole garlic cloves. Cover, and bring to a simmer for 15-20 minutes to develop flavor. Then, using a slotted spoon, remove garlic, ginger, and green onions from broth and discard.
4. Assemble soup: Slice the shiitake mushrooms, and remove and discarding the stems. Place mushrooms in the soup and bring to a simmer. Cook for 1-2 minutes. Add the carrots, and then working one at at time, carefully lower the wontons into the soup with a slotted spoon. Gently stir occasionally to prevent the wontons from sticking to the bottom of the pot. Once all wontons are in, bring the soup back to a gentle simmer and cook for another 2 minutes, until wontons have floated to the top. Add snow peas to the soup, stirring gently. Cook for 1 more minute, until snow peas are bright green and tender. Taste broth, and season with salt as needed. Remove pot from heat.
5. Serve: Label soup into bowls, and top with sliced green onions, toasted sesame seeds, and red chili flakes to taste. Enjoy hot!

Instant Pot Tom Yum Soup

This is an older recipe from Foraged Dish. I wanted to give it a little update, so here it is! 

There is a Thai restaurant in Estes Park, which we drive by after visiting Rocky Mountain National Park. After a long day outside, when it's starting to get a bit chilly, nothing is better than a stop at that restaurant for a cozy Thai soup or spicy curry. 

Tom Yum soup is also the ultimate soup when you're sick. It's brothy, with chicken and veggies, and scented with lemongrass and ginger. This version is an Instant Pot recipe -- easy is key when you're not feeling your best. 

Some typical Thai ingredients can be hard to find here in the states! Here's where to look and what to do if you can't find it: 

You can find lemongrass in the herb section of some grocery stores, at a local Asian Market, or online. Use it while it's fresh! The Asian Market near me sells it in sets of two stalks. This recipe only calls for one, but I try to use the second one for another batch of soup within a week because I find that as soon as the lemongrass dries out it loses it's flavor. I've had poor success in freezing it, unfortunately. (Anyone have tips?) 

In this recipe, I call for ginger and not galangal. Most Tom Yum recipes call for both, but galangal is another ingredient that can be hard to get your hands on. If you do go to an Asian Market, look there and use half galangal, half ginger in the recipe. Otherwise, don't worry about it for one minute -- the favor of ginger is very similar to galangal (galangal is just a bit more mild), so using all ginger is just fine!

Kaffir lime is in a lot of Thai recipes but I don't include it in the instructions below at all because I've found it's nearly impossible to buy in the states! (That said, it has an amazing aroma, so if you can find it, add 3 leaves to the pot before closing it up, and then remove them before serving). It's also very hard to buy kaffir lime seeds in the United States, but I would love to grow one! I have seen a few companies that will ship a grafted plant, so I might try it. 

Last but not least: fish sauce isn’t for everyone (but you can usually find it in the Asian section of your grocery store). If you're not that into it, use Worcestershire sauce instead (it's ok, I have my own trepidations). It's not quite the same, but it will provide some of that Unami flavor that rounds out the broth. 

Phew! Thai food is an adventure on it's own! But don't let that stop you -- this soup is delicious, nourishing, and cozy. And this version has been adapted to make it a bit more approachable. Enjoy! 

Instant Pot Tom Yum Soup

Published December 11, 2018 by Caitlin Sherwood

Serves: 6   |    Active Time: 15 minutes

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Ingredients:

1 tablespoon coconut oil

4 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 onion, diced

3 tablespoons ginger, finely minced

1 large carrot, diced

1 zucchini, diced

2 cups mushrooms, sliced or quartered

1/2 pound boneless chicken breast

3 green onions, white and dark green parts removed, then sliced

2-5 minced Thai chili peppers, depending on spice preference

8 cups chicken or bone broth

1 cup canned full-fat coconut milk

1 teaspoon lime juice

1 stalk lemongrass

1/8 teaspoon fish sauce

Optional for serving: chili oil, cilantro, lime wedges

Directions:

1. Heat coconut oil in the bottom of an Instant Pot on the “Sauté” setting. When oil is melted, add diced onion, and minced garlic and ginger. Sauté until onions are translucent.
2. Add diced carrots, diced zucchini, sliced mushrooms, chicken breasts, green onions, Thai chili peppers, broth, coconut milk, lime juice, stalk of lemongrass, and fish sauce.
3. Place lid on Instant Pot and turn to “Soup” setting with timer set to one minute. Turn vent to sealed position.
4. When timer goes off, release the pressure through the vent. Using tongs or a slotted spoon, pull chicken from soup and use two forks to shred it into bite-sized pieces. Place shredded chicken back in soup and stir. Remove lemongrass stalks (you can use them as garnish, but they are not great for just eating -- they just add flavor to the broth).
5. Serve hot with additional chili oil, cilantro, lime, or hot sauce (such as Sriracha).