From crazy rain to chicken soup

It was raining. Not just a drizzle, not even just a steady rain, but a proper downpour. The type where you get soaked within a minute and the water cannot get away quickly enough, so that the streets turn into rivers. It was my last day in Kuala Lumpur and I had planned to go to a Chinese temple. But once I got out of the metro, the weather had changed from a morning drizzle to that. So even with my newly bought umbrella, I decided it was not a good moment for the half an hour walk to the temple. Instead, I walked to the nearby Little India part of town and found a cafe to sit down with a spicy masala tea. It gave me the time to contemplate about my (too) short three days in Kuala Lumpur.

I was on a stop-over between Europe and Australia and therefore only had limited time, but those days were enough to get a good impression and be quite captured by the city. I had started my days with nasi lemak, which is pretty much the Malaysian national dish with coconut and pandan rice, a spicy sauce, fried ansjovis, peanuts and more sides like boiled egg and cucumber. A good basis for exploring the city, which is needed in a place where the diversity of things to explore on one day is so large. In the morning of the full day I spent there I went to the Batu caves, the hindu temple complex in a cave which you can reach by climbing up long, colourful stairs. Even with the tourists there it was still a magical place. In the afternoon I was standing on the viewing platform of the KL tower and looking at the modern Petronas towers. And between all those different impression there was, of course, the food. One of my favourite to-do’s was eating on the street and looking at all the food for sale there. In one of the large night markets people were queuing for durian, coconut, fried squid or sticks with meat and fish of all sorts. Sadly I did not have time to try all I would have liked to, but I had delicious satay with different meats and spices, haianese chicken rice and several other dishes.

So enough to think about while the rain continued to come down. Fortunately, after around an hour, the rain made space for a blue sky and bright sunshine. There was still enough time to visit the Chinese temple before I had to rush off to the airport.

Several months later, when I was back in Vienna on a cold and rainy January day, I was thinking about those moments of enjoying my tea while looking at the rain. And I decided it was about time to cook a warming dish that would remind me of those beautiful days in Kuala Lumpur. The dish became this spicy chicken soup.

Spicy chicken soup

I often buy a whole chicken so that I can make a stock out of the carcass and use all different pieces of meat in different dishes. But of course, for a less time-consuming method it also totally works to buy chicken stock and get just the chicken meat that you need.

Ingredients (for 2)

• Chicken stock – about 1,5 liter
• 2 chicken tights and 2 chicken legs
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 green chilli
• Thumbsize piece of ginger
• 2 potatoes – around 250 grams
• Sunflower oil
• Salt
• Tumeric – 1 teaspoon
• Cumin – 2 teaspoons
• Fish sauce – 2 teaspoons
• Rice vermicelli noodles – 50 grams
• 1 lemon
• 2 eggs
• 2 spring onions
  

Bring the chicken stock to a simmer. Meanwhile, take the skin of the chicken pieces and once the stock is simmering, add the chicken into the pot. Let the chicken simmer for around 45 minutes, until the meat easily falls of the bones.
While the chicken is simmering away, start preparing the other ingredients. Finely chop the onion and mince the garlic and the chilli. Use as much chilli as you like, depending on your preference for spiciness and on the chilli itself. Peel and grate the ginger. Peel the potatoes and cut them into dices of around half a centimeter.
Once the chicken is done cooking, take the chicken pieces out of the stock and set aside.

In another large pot, heat a splash of sunflower oil. Add the onion with a pinch of salt and fry over a medium fire until the onion is golden brown. Add the garlic, chilli and ginger and fry for another 2 minutes before adding the tumeric and cumin. Pour in the fish sauce and then carefully pour in the stock with the onion and spices mixture as well. Add the pieces of potato and bring to a simmer. Simmer for around 12 minutes, until the potato has softened.

While the potato is cooking, use two forks to take the chicken meat of the bones. Add the chicken meat to the pot with the soup.
Place the eggs in a pot of cold water and bring to a boil. Once boiling, switch off the heat and leave the eggs for 6 minutes in the hot water, until almost hard boiled.
Check the preparation descriptions on your rice vermicelli and follow the instructions. Normally, you have to place the vermicelli in boiling water for around 5 minutes. So prepare them as needed and when you have the long ones, chop them into smaller pieces before adding to the soup as well.

Once the potatoes are done and you have added the chicken and rice vermicelli to the soup, do a taste teste to see if any additional salt, fish sauce or spice is needed. Add a small splash of lemon juice according to taste as well.

Finally, peel and chop the boiled eggs. Finely slice the spring onions. Divide the soup over two bowls and garnish with the egg and spring onions. Enjoy!