March 12, 2008

Sweet Corn Chicken Soup

The last of the current series of soup..The weather is thankfully turning the corner and spring is peeping through the buds on the trees. Hmm.... Time to do preventive weed treatment and fertilize the yard!!And maybe open the grill.:)

This is the easiest of the soups and for the longest time I associated it with the Indo-Chinese restaurants in India and thought it was something very complicated! Then my friend's mom should me this non soy based, non ajinomoto based healthy soup and it became a regular in our house. Maybe in India it is complicated, but here with the advent of canned Sweet Corn Creamed Style, it is so easy! Maybe you do get creamed corn there too! The addition of scallions and ginger garlic gives the soup it the flavor we are accustomed to.

Vegetarian Version:
Just replace the chicken stock with vegetable stock. Add the white stem of the scallion or leeks for more flavor.


You will Need:
Chicken- 1 pound
Sweet Corn cream Style -1 can
Green part of Scallions/spring onions-one handful
Salt and pepper to taste
Fresh Ginger -Garlic paste -1 teaspoon
Corn Starch - 1 to 2 teaspoon
Egg- 1 ( beaten)

Garnish-Mix 3 Green chillies chopped with 2 Tbsp white vinegar and let it sit for some time.

Preparation:
1. Pressure cook the chicken with bones with 1 heaped teaspoon of fresh ginger-garlic paste and 4 cups of water for 1 whistle. Open the cooker when it cools, strain the stock and keep aside in the cooker. Remove the chicken from the bones and cut into bite sized pieces. Add this to the stock and return the pressure cooker to the flame.

2. Add the entire contents of the corn can and pressure cook again for a whistle. Alternatively you could slow cook for 15 minutes, add corn and cook for a further 15 minutes. Open the cooker and return to the flame,add salt and pepper and check the consistency.

3. Depending on the corn, it may be sufficiently thick or thin. Add 1 teaspoon of corn starch mixed with some of the stock if it looks too thin and let it boil. As it boils, add 1 beaten egg and remove from flame. The egg is optional. I mostly don't add it as it tastes good without it too. (I haven't added it in this photo.)Garnish the soup with fresh cilantro (a bit) and fresh cut scallions and top it with vinegar chilies.

P.S.Be careful of the corn starch..too much can spoil the taste and make it too thick. Also as it cools, it congeals further so stop when it is just short of your desired thickness. For those who don't get creamed corn in a can, just boil or pressure cook corn till tender and blend it with 1/4 cup milk till it is slightly creamed. Some like it very smooth so you can blend it all the way, else leave it chunky.

Easy version:
You could make this with boneless chicken too but the bone-in-ones taste better.
Instead of the step 1, use Chicken Boneless- 1 chicken breast cut into bite sized pieces, pressure cooked with 1 can of creamed style corn and 3 cups of water. Then proceed as above.

Related Links: A Veg version of the Sweet Corn Soup

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, its raining soups in the blogosphere, each one so different and varied from one another. And there still no sign of spring at place as yet, guess will have to wait for a lil more time! Thnx for sharing the recipe, will try it this weekend!

www.zaiqa.net

Kalai said...

Looks great! Shaheen, would you be interested in the arusuvai friendship chain? Email me or leave a comment on my blog if interested. Thanks!

KayKat said...

Mmm ... indochinese soup goodness.

I make this vegetarian with a slew of shredded vegetables.

Cham said...

The soup is so clear :) Love your recipe :)

Unknown said...

Hey Shaheen,
just dropping by to say HI - I see you have been on a soup spree - for some reason thought you were on a blogging break and so missed coming to your blog for quite some time..
Hope the weather is turning out to be better now :)
Cheers
N

Anonymous said...

Thanks Shaheen, this is a must-try for me. Kids love sweet corn chicken soup. and we do get canned sweet corn - cream style here. :-)
Asha

Finla said...

I love this soup, it is one of my fav, i posted the same soup two weeks back

Anonymous said...

oh, the soup series is ending.. i was rathr njoyin them...
so many chinese restuarants around...but nothing like the ones in india...they hav n't even heard of manjurian,schezuan..etc etc.....;)
lov
ki

Bharathy said...

Love the variety of soups you are posting lately!Now I am confused which one to try first!:)

Macadamia The Nut said...

You are a blessing girl! I've been walking around with a horrid cough for the past few dyas now. This should hit the spot. I'm going to Publix right now to get some ingredients. Will tell you how it came out.

P.S. How many days can I store this in the 'fridge?

Sakshi said...

Just wanted to let you know that I made this soup for a gathering yesterday and everyone was going ga ga over it. out of the 20 odd dishes everyone kept on raving abt your recipe and wanted to know the method. So I promised them to forward your link..and doing that right now :)

Really Shaheen you never let me down ;). It was really amazing and so easy to make. Reminded me of the soup I used to have in a restaurant back in SM Street. Thanks a ton!