Hot and Sour Soup
ہاٹ اینڈ ساور سوپ
Hot and sour soup is chicken corn soup's livelier sibling: the same silky, cornflour-thickened base, but dark with soy sauce, sharp with vinegar and warm with white pepper and chili sauce. In Pakistan it's the soup people order on cold evenings and when they're coming down with something, and it's easy to make at home from a simple chicken stock.
- ⏱ Total: 50 min
- Prep: 15 min
- Cook: 35 min
- Easy
- Serves 6
Method
Tap a step when it is done.
Put the chicken, water, ginger and garlic in a . Bring to a boil, skim off the foam, then simmer gently for 25 minutes to make a light stock.
Lift out the chicken, shred the meat finely and discard the bones. Strain the stock and return it to the pot.
Add the shredded chicken, carrot, cabbage and capsicum, and bring back to a boil. Stir in the soy sauce, vinegar, chili sauce, white pepper and salt.
Mix the cornflour with ½ cup of cold water. Pour it in slowly while stirring, and simmer for 2–3 minutes until the soup thickens and turns glossy.
Turn the heat down. Pour the beaten eggs in a thin stream while gently stirring in one direction, so they set into fine ribbons.
Taste and add more vinegar or pepper to your liking. Serve hot, topped with spring onions, with extra chili sauce and vinegar at the table.
Kitchen notes
Add the vinegar off the boil if you can. Long boiling dulls its sharpness, and the soup loses its sour edge.
Always mix cornflour with cold water first. Added straight to hot soup, it forms lumps that never dissolve.
The soup that starts the meal
In Pakistani Chinese restaurants, the meal nearly always starts with soup, and the choice is usually between chicken corn soup and hot and sour. Hot and sour is the bolder of the two, the one people reach for on a cold night or when they want something to clear their head. Small soup stalls in winter sell it by the bowl, with bottles of chili vinegar and soy sauce on every table.
Stock is the foundation
Everything depends on a decent chicken stock. Simmering chicken on the bone with ginger and garlic for 25 minutes gives a light, clean broth and the shredded meat for the soup in one go. Skim the foam as it comes to the boil for a clearer result.
Balancing hot and sour
The “hot” comes from white pepper and chili sauce; the “sour” from vinegar. Restaurants vary a lot, so treat the quantities as a starting point. Taste once the soup is thickened, then adjust a teaspoon at a time. White pepper gives a warm, throat-catching heat that’s very different from red chili, so it’s worth keeping it in.
Serving
Serve the soup as soon as the eggs have set, in deep bowls with extra chili sauce, vinegar with sliced green chilies, and soy sauce on the side. Follow it with chicken Manchurian and fried rice for a classic Pakistani Chinese dinner.
Questions people ask
Can I use ready-made stock?
Yes. Use 6 cups of chicken stock and add 1 cup of shredded cooked chicken. Taste before adding salt, since bought stock is often salty.
How is it different from chicken corn soup?
Corn soup is mild, pale and slightly sweet from the corn. Hot and sour soup is darker, tangier and spicier, with vinegar, soy sauce and pepper.
Can I make it ahead?
Make the stock ahead and keep it in the fridge for 2 days. Thicken it and add the egg just before serving; reheated thickened soup turns watery.
Nutrition (estimate, per serving)
- Calories
- 140
- Protein
- 14 g
- Fat
- 5 g
- Carbs
- 10 g
