Recipe of the day : Chicken sopas

Last Sunday it was very cold so we stayed at home and I made soup. My husband loves it and it seems a perfect dish to keep us warm. There is a standard recipe for this that you can find online but this is a staple when I was a kid so I know how to make it by heart.

You can find this link useful if you want to follow the step by step process of preparing Chicken sopas.

Recipe: Chicken Sopas

 Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 medium sized onion, diced
• 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast, diced
• 32 ounces chicken broth (about 4 cups)
• 2 cups elbow macaroni
• 3/4 cup celery stalk, chopped
• 3/4 cup carrots, diced
• 3/4 cup cabbage; shredded
• 3/4 cup fresh or evaporated milk
• 1 cup water
• Salt and ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Heat a cooking pot and put-in the butter. Allow the butter to melt.
2. Add onions and cook until the texture becomes soft.
3. Put-in the boneless chicken breasts and cook for 3 to 5 minutes.
4. Sprinkle some salt and ground black pepper and stir.
5. Add chicken broth and bring to a boil.
6. Pour-in water and milk and wait to re-boil. Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.
7. Add the elbow macaroni and cook for 8 minutes while stirring once in a while.
8. Put-in the carrots and celery and simmer for 3 minutes.
9. Add the cabbage and cook for 2 minutes more.
10. Turn-off the heat and transfer to a serving plate.
11. Serve hot. Share and enjoy!

My own version: (I omitted the celery and cabbage because we only had carrots in the fridge)

1. Boil the chicken breast (set aside the broth once the chicken is cooked) Shred the chicken
2. In a pan, put some butter and a little olive oil.
3. Add garlic then onions
4. Add the shredded chicken and the red bell pepper
5. While doing 1-4, put minced ginger (about 2 tbsp) in the broth and add the elbow macaroni for approximately 8-10 minutes.
6. You may put the carrots, chicken mixture in the pot( fried in the pan with garlic, onion, red bell)before the macaroni is fully cooked. Season to taste.
7. Add milk and let it simmer for 10 minutes or less. You may turn off the heat once the macaroni is cooked.
8. Add freshly chopped scallion before serving

Boiled Chicken (if youre wondering why there is a drumstick there, it was meant to add flavor to the broth) Set aside the broth for the soup later

Garlic

Carrots

Ginger

Onions and scallions

Red bell pepper to give the soup a little kick

Elbow macaroni ( 2 cups for 2 hungry people)

butter

Broth from boiled breast chicken

Garlic and onion

Mix the shredded chicken with the garlic and onion

I had to transfer the broth to a bigger pot when I realized the 2 cups of elbow macaroni was a lot

Added the elbow macaroni to the broth and before it was almost cooked, Added the sauteed chicken (with garlic, onion, pepper, some of the scallions)

Enjoy!=)