Vietnamese Green Peppercorn Chicken Soup

Wonderful flavours. Easy to make. Filling and tasty.

View Instructions

Servings

4 big serves

Ready In:

1 hours + marinade

Calories:

a healthy serve

Good For:

tasty filling meals

About this Recipe

By: Sharyn

The original recipe for this dish comes from Luke Nguyen’s Indochine cookbook. I loved the basic flavour, but found it both too sweet and too salty. I have modified the recipe to suit my taste. I have added more complexity to the soup flavour with a touch of five spice and by increasing all of the vegetables to make it a little more hearty. I hope you enjoy!

Ingredients

Marinade:

1.5 kg chicken
50 g green peppercorns fresh or canned in brine
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt

Broth:

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tblspn vegetable oil
1 tsp five spice powder
3 tomatoes chopped
2 carrots, peelied and cut into chunks
1.5 ltrs coconut water (unsweetened)
4 tblspn fish sauce
8 Asian red shallots or french shallots, peeled
1 onion, cut into wedges

Baguettes to serve – be generous

This is one of those recipes that is easy to adapt. You can add or omit ingredients to suit your taste but still finish with a fragrant tasty meal.

The next time I make this I will play with the heat. I think that it would benefit from finely diced birds eye chillies sprinkled over the top of the soup just before serving. A kick of heat will work nicely to offset the sweetness of the coconut water.

On the subject of coconut water, you want a pure variety. Sweetened or flavoured coconut water wont work, it will overpower all of the other flavours. Don’t confuse coconut water with coconut milk; coconut milk is not suitable for this recipe, the final soup is not creamy, it is a broth. You can also substitute some of the coconut water with plain water if you wish to dilute the coconut sweetness or add water to increase the volume of broth.

There is some confusion about which of the many varieties of onion is a shallot. We sometimes refer to spring onions as shallots, these are the long green stalks with the white root end – don’t use these! We want the small, onion like, tear shaped bulbs with either a red or brown papery peel.

You could also chop chives, vietnamese mint, and coriander to sprinkle over the soup.

Step by Step Instructions

Step 1

Do the prep jobs first:

Rinse the chicken, drain, and blot dry with a paper towel.
Remove any fat from the cavity and around the neck. Using a cleaver or meat shears, cut the chicken down each side of the backbone and discard backbone and parsons nose (or keep for stock). Cut through the middle of the chest leaving 2 halves each with a wing and a leg. Finally, find and cut through the thin section of skin and flesh between the breasts and legs to form 4 pieces.
Dice tomatoes.
Peel and cut carrots into chunks – I like reasonably chunky carrots, you might prefer a finer dice – you choose.
Cut off the root stalk and peel the shallots – leave whole.
Peel and cut onion into 6 to 8 wedges depending upon size of onion.

Step 2

Using a mortar and pestle, lightly bruise half of the green peppercorns. If they are canned drain first, and then bruise all of the peppercorns – you can do this with a fork.
Transfer bruised peppercorns to a large mixing bowl, add the sugar, salt, and 3 finely diced garlic cloves. Stir to combine. Add chicken pieces, turn to coat in the marinade, then cover and place in the fridge to marinate for at least 1 hour.

Step 3

Heat a large heavy saucepan or wok over high heat. Add vegetable oil and fry the remaining 3 finely diced garlic cloves until fragrant, then add five spice powder.
Add chicken and seal on both sides until skin is browned.
Transfer to soup pot and add tomatoes, carrot, coconut water, fish sauce, whole shallots, and onion.
Bring to the boil, skimming off any impurities that rise to the surface.
Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 40 minutes uncovered, or until the chicken is cooked.

Step 4

While soup is cooking heat oven to 180 C.
Wet grease proof paper and gently wring out. Wrap baguettes in paper and place in oven for 5 to 10 minutes until heated through and fragrant. Try to time this so that warm baguettes are ready to serve with the soup.
Transfer the chicken to serving bowls and garnish with remaining fresh peppercorns (if using). Serve with warm baguettes.