ALL HAIL THE CHICKEN SOUP
- Nic's Kitchen
- Jun 2, 2020
- 4 min read
You've probably seen a lot of Nigerian 'curries', beef, chicken, goat...We are big carnivores - we serve meat on most meals and when we don't, that meal was already cooked with some heavy protein source (e.g. moi moi).
I apologise for not documenting this step by step. I didn't intend to post this but someone requested it. However, it's really simple. Now, let's talk ingredients.
I recommend using chicken portions unless you are very good at cutting up a whole chicken. If you do buy a whole chicken, don't make the mistake of throwing away the back bone, it's the foundation of a good chicken stock or soup (just add carrots, onions, garlic and ginger. Don't forget to strain).
I think most supermarkets now stock scotch bonnets and to be fair, can sometimes be cheaper than ethnic shops, especially if weighed and not sold in little punnets. I use 9 scotch bonnets per 1.5 tin of 400g tins of chopped tomatoes but many of you that knows me know I am a special breed when it comes to ability to eat spicy food. Here's my recommendation using Nandos chart.
Nandos chicken and Lime - 1 scotch bonnet per tin
Nandos hot 2 per tin
Nandos very hot 3-4 per tin
Naga Chilli level Please do as you wish :)
Do NOT use red onions! It's sweet and we all love it on our sandwiches but in this soup/curry, it's useless. It'll make the it dark.
If you can't find scotch bonnet, you can use red finger chillies. Substitute 2 finger chillies for one scotch bonnet. Absolutely nothing but red bell pepper can be used. Green will have the same effect as red onions, yellow will dilute the red colour you are supposed to get.
If during cooking you think the heat it too much, use a tablespoon of pureed tomato. Add 1 spoon, stir and give it 5 mins to cook through, then taste. Repeat until you are satisfied. If your soup was nearly cooked before you realise this, you'll need to cook for a bit longer to ensure the puree is cooked.
Whether it's too hot or not, you can still use tomato puree. It gives the soup a really nice reddish colour it should have and especially useful if your ingredients didn't give you that nice red hue. I don't always use this, hence, why I said it's optional. Some people use it religiously and will swear your soup won't be the same without it. However, if you picked the right ingredients, you don't need it.
Here's the bit that might shock you, we cook chicken before cooking. Confused? What I mean is you must boil the chicken before putting it in the curry. I've never tried using raw chicken in the soup but I'm pretty sure it's not good for you. Please cook your chicken.
To cook the chicken (here comes a debatable point), rinse away the slime and blood in a bowl before seasoning. I think the point of not washing chicken comes from holding it under the tap and letting the water splashed around the cooking surface without cleaning the surface later. However, that's my personal opinion. Anyway, whatever you decide to do, place the chicken in a stock pot, season and cook.
Cooking time depends on your type of chicken. If you get chicken from your local ethnic shop, make sure you ask if it's normal or hard chicken. I've been told hard chicken are generally known as stewing chicken as they are more matured and great for? You guessed it, stewing. I used normal chicken in this recipe. Normal (similar to supermarket chicken) takes approximately 15-20 mins to cook but hard chicken will take an extra 10-15. In addition, you'll need to put your hard chicken into the curry a lot earlier than you would the other chicken.
The chicken is cooked when there is no blood oozing out when pressed with a spatula. To put this better, in the first picture, you can see the bone is red with blood. The chicken is cooked in the second picture as this has now turn into black. Even when you see this, give it another 5mins to be sure.
Oils - the most common oil is sunflower oil but I've used coconut, rapeseed and oilve oil before. My recommendation is to use about 2 or 3 tablespoons of oil because you'll get more oil from the chicken stock. In these days of us trying to watch our cholestrol level, less oil is better.
Finally, let's talk about stock. The stock from cooking the chicken will be a blessing to this soup. It'll infuse one of the best taste you've ever tried. Don't use too much at once though, the stock already contains seasoning (read salt). Use a ladle or two, taste to see if it's good enough for you and add more if needed.
Ingredients
✅ 5 Scotch bonnet
✅ 1 tin chopped tomatoes
✅ 3 medium onions (1 diced, 2 to blend, 1 finely chopped)
✅ 2 red salad peppers
✅ 2kg Chicken portions
✅ 3 chicken stock cube
✅ 1tsp salt
✅ 1 tube/tin tomato puree
✅ 2 tbsp sunflower oil
✅ 2 cloves of garlic or 1tbs chopped
✅ 1 small ginger or 1tbs chopped
✅ 1tbsp dried herbs
✅ 1tsp curry powder
✅ 300ml water
Method
Blend Scotch Bonnet, chopped tomatoes, 2 onions and Salad peppers together until smooth.
Put the chicken in a stockpot, add finely chopped onions and season with garlic, ginger, salt, and 1 stock cube. Add water and cook for 15-20mins. Remove the chicken from the stock and set aside.
Heat up the oil and fry finely chopped onion and garlic until onions are soft. Add dry herbs and if you are using tomato puree this is when you add, cook for 3-5mins. Stir continuously to prevent burning. Add the blended mixture.
Add some of the stock and taste. Use mire if required or use the additional stock cube. Simmer for 5-7mins, then add hard chicken if this what you are using. Otherwise wait for 15mins. By this time, the oil should be on top of the stew.
Carefully place the chicken in the stew and cook for another 15 mins. Stir carefully, making sure you don't break the chicken as it’ll be very soft now.
Serve with rice and enjoy!
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