Chicken and Watercress Soup

Kim Ong's Note:

Chinese believe that watercress are good for removing heatiness. If you are taking the soup for this purpose, do not add in the sesame oil.

• Total Time: 20 mins
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 10 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 3

• 1 chicken breast, skinless,deboned and sliced into small pieces
• 6 canned shiitake mushrooms, sliced thinly
• watercress, cut into 2 portions (a handful)
• 6 cups chicken stock
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cornflour
• 1 teaspoon rice wine
• 1 dash pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

Directions:

1. Marinate chicken with salt, cornflour and rice wine, pepper and sesame oil.
2. Bring chicken stock to boil in a saucepan.
3. Add in the mushrooms and cook for 2 minutes.
4. Add in the chicken and stir to separate the chicken slices.
5. When soup starts to boil, add in the watercress and stir.
6. Cook for 1-2 minutes.
7. Remove and serve in a soup bowl.

Reviews

[Chef #705635]

easy, delicious, and satisfying! I'll definitely add this to my repertoire.

[Amy in Hawaii]

I made this soup with leftover bones and meat from a roast chicken. I use dried shitake mushrooms because the flavor is concentrated. I also added about a tablespoon of soy sauce, a thumb sized piece of peeled and crushe ginger, and i/2 cup washed raw rice at the beginning and simmered the bones and stock until the rice was done. Then I added the watercress. Since the rice thickens the soup I did not need cornflour. I also cannot find cornflour. Cornstarch is usually used as a thickener in Chinese cuisine. Thanks for a great recipe

[Nose]

Nice flavors - comforting, but full of variety. I sort of made this soup: I used tofu! It was still pretty good even with the tofu, but I think it would be better with the chicken in it. I also used fresh shiitake mushrooms and found that it might have been better to cook those for longer than 2 minutes at the beginning.