Chicken Pasta Soup is a perfect dish for cold weather days or a hearty breakfast to start your day full of energy. Check out this article for a wonderful yet quick recipe for chicken pasta soup using easy-to-find ingredients!
Shredded chicken pasta is considered a nutritious, delicious, and easy-to-eat dish. People often enjoy pasta in the morning as a light yet wholesome breakfast to kickstart a new day filled with energy. The following tips will help you master an easy-to-make recipe for wonderfully flavorful chicken pasta soup.
What is Pasta? Ingredients of Pasta
In Vietnam, pasta is a dry food product that is very familiar in many household kitchens. Known as “macaroni” in English, pasta is used to prepare a variety of dishes suitable for both adults and children, such as boiling, frying, and stir-frying. When cooked at high temperatures, pasta becomes soft, sweet, and pleasantly chewy.
The main ingredients of pasta are wheat flour, eggs, and water. Pre-made and packaged pasta available in stores often includes food coloring and additives to enhance its appeal and extend its shelf life. There is a wide variety of pasta on the market, distinguished by the ingredients used and their shapes, such as elbow macaroni, tube pasta, bow-tie pasta, spiral pasta, star-shaped pasta, brown rice pasta, rice flour pasta, and vegetable pasta. This diversity in color, shape, and ingredients offers customers more choices, and the nutritional content they provide also varies.
Ingredients for Chicken Pasta Soup
To prepare a serving of chicken pasta soup for four people, you will need:
- 2 chicken breasts
- 100g pasta
- 1 carrot
- 1 white radish
- 100g straw mushrooms
- 2 stalks of green onions
- 5 shallots
- Seasonings including salt, sugar, cooking oil, seasoning powder, and pepper.
Instructions for Cooking Delicious Chicken Pasta Soup
To cook a pot of chicken pasta soup to treat the whole family, follow these steps:
Ingredient Preparation Steps
- Rub the chicken breasts with salt or white wine and ginger to remove any fishy smell and dirt, then rinse thoroughly.
- Peel the radish and carrot, wash them, cut into chunks, and carve into decorative flower shapes if desired.
- Peel the shallots and slice thinly to fry and serve with the pasta.
- Wash the green onions and chop finely.
- Clean the straw mushrooms and cut them in half.
- Soak the pasta in water for about 15 minutes to soften it more quickly when cooking.
- Pour the soaked pasta into a pot, add enough water to cover the pasta, and turn on high heat. Add a little cooking oil to prevent the pasta from sticking together after boiling. After boiling the pasta for 10 minutes, check if it is soft and cooked, then drain it in a colander.
- Put another pot of water on the stove, wait for it to boil, then add half a tablespoon of seasoning powder and 1 teaspoon of salt. Cook until the chicken is tender, about 30 minutes, then turn off the heat. Remove the chicken and soak it in cold water to firm up the meat, then shred it.
- Place a pan on the stove, add a little oil, and wait for it to heat up. Add the sliced shallots and fry until golden brown, then turn off the heat.
Cooking the Chicken Pasta Soup Broth
- After cooking the chicken for 30 minutes, add the carrots, mushrooms, and radish, and continue cooking for 2 more minutes.
- Remove the two chicken breasts and continue cooking the other ingredients until they are fully cooked.
- Adjust the seasoning to taste, then turn off the heat.
Final Product
When ready to eat, scoop the pasta into a bowl, add the shredded chicken, pour in the freshly cooked broth, and sprinkle some green onions and fried shallots on top. The pasta should be eaten hot for the best taste, and it can be served with a small bowl of chili fish sauce to enhance the flavor.
Notes for Making Chicken Pasta Soup More Delicious
The quality of chicken pasta soup—whether it remains firm and retains its original chewy texture—depends on the secrets that the cook needs to know. These include:
- Boil the pasta for a maximum of 8 to 12 minutes, and you can taste the pasta to determine its doneness.
- Wait until the water is boiling before adding the pasta to ensure it cooks evenly and doesn’t clump together.
- Add a little cooking oil and salt when boiling the pasta.
- Stir the pasta frequently with chopsticks to prevent it from sticking and burning at the bottom of the pot.
- After boiling and draining the pasta, rinse it with cold water to prevent it from sticking together and to maintain its chewy texture.
How to Select Delicious Ingredients
Choosing fresh and tasty ingredients is a crucial step that determines whether your chicken pasta soup will be delicious. Here are some methods you should know to create a richly flavored chicken pasta soup:
How to Choose Chicken
- Visually inspect the chicken when purchasing. Fresh chicken breasts have a rosy color, pale yellow skin, and the meat should not be bruised or have blood clots.
- Press the chicken with your fingers to feel the firmness and elasticity of fresh, quality chicken. If the chicken feels mushy, slippery, or deforms when pressed, it may have been injected with water or has been stored for too long.
How to Choose Fresh Straw Mushrooms
- Select straw mushrooms that are intact, round, and still in bud form.
- Avoid choosing mushrooms that have fully bloomed, feel slimy to the touch, or have a bad odor, as these are old mushrooms and will not taste fresh when cooked.
- Choose mushrooms that are black in color for a more flavorful and rich taste compared to white mushrooms.
I hope the above tips have helped you learn how to correctly cook chicken pasta soup. In just about 30 minutes, you can successfully make this nutritious and delicious dish. Visit Foodvietnamese.com daily to discover more secrets to cooking nutritious Vietnamese dishes!
