← Nouns Cooking · Chinese

Ingredients

• 1 kg chicken pieces (legs, wings and backs)
• 500 g pork ribs or bones
• 5 slices Ginger
• 3 Spring onion, cut into lengths
• 3 l Water
• 1½ tsp salt, or to taste
• 150 g Chicken breast, sliced paper thin (part-freeze first)
• 150 g pork fillet, sliced paper thin (part-freeze first)
• 8 raw prawns, peeled and halved lengthways
• 4 raw quail eggs
• 50 g cured ham, very thinly sliced (optional)
• 1 handful dried wood ear mushrooms, soaked and sliced
• 1 sheet Dried beancurd skin sheets (fu pei), soaked and cut into strips
• 150 g Bok choy, leaves separated
• 1 handful Garlic chives, cut into 3 cm lengths
• 400 g fresh round rice noodles (mi xian), or cooked dried ones
• 4 tbsp chicken fat or neutral oil
• 1 handful Coriander (cilantro), chopped
• 2 Spring onion, sliced, to serve

Method

1. Put the chicken pieces and pork bones in a large pot of cold water, bring to the boil and boil for 5 min. Drain, rinse everything and the pot clean.
2. Return the meat to the pot with the ginger, spring onion and 3 l fresh water. Bring to the boil, skim, then simmer very gently, half covered, for 2 hours, until golden and rich. Strain and season with salt.
3. While the broth simmers, slice the chicken and pork as thinly as you can and arrange them on a plate with the prawns and ham. Lay out the wood ear, beancurd skin, bok choy and chives on another plate.
4. Pour boiling water into four large, deep bowls to heat them, and blanch the rice noodles in boiling water for 1 minute, then drain.
5. Bring the broth back to a rolling boil. Empty the bowls, add 1 tbsp chicken fat or oil to each, then ladle in the boiling broth so the fat forms a hot layer on top.
6. At the table, add the raw meat and prawns to the bowls first and stir gently for about 1 minute, until the meat turns white all the way through and the prawns pink. Crack in a quail egg, then add the vegetables and finally the noodles.
7. Scatter with coriander and spring onion and eat once the vegetables have wilted, about 2 min later.

Tips

• The broth must be at a full boil and the bowls hot, or the raw meat will not cook. Raw chicken must cook through: if in doubt, poach the chicken slices in the boiling pot for 1 minute, until white throughout, before adding them to the bowls, and leave the quail egg until its white has set.
• Contains shellfish and egg.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

BBC Good Food SBS Food