Chicken and Bok Choy Soup

Chicken and Bok Choy Soup

Fall is in the air, at least where I live. And that means SOUP season! This is another recipe I made several months ago during a cool spell. The hardest thing about writing a recipe months after the fact is interpreting the scribbles hastily written down while cooking and photographing. I’m sure at the time I thought I would remember what it all means. So if I’ve missed a step or ingredient, please forgive me! But what I do remember is how much I enjoyed this soup.

Don’t let all those bottled sauces intimidate you, as very little of each is used and they keep for a long time in the refrigerator.  And it’s always nice to have just the sauce you need when you’re in the mood for an Asian dish. I think I’ll make this again very soon, as the cool, fall air is making me hanker for some warm, soothing soup!

Chicken and Bok Choy Soup

1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup grated carrot
1­ inch piece ginger, peeled and minced
4 to 5 cups homemade or low­sodium chicken broth
8 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breast tenders
1 serrano or jalapeño pepper, stemmed and thinly sliced
2 heads baby bok choy, sliced crosswise
2 green onions, green part only, chopped
2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar
2 teaspoons oyster sauce
1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon Sambal Oelek (optional)
Lime wedges, for serving

Chicken and Bok Choy Soup Ingredients ~ I started to crop this photo but couldn’t after I spotted our darling Hannah Banana in the background!

Add the oils to a wok or Dutch oven heated over medium high. Add the shredded carrot and sauté for a few minutes, then add the garlic and ginger and stir until fragrant.

Pour in the chicken broth, rice wine vinegar, oyster, soy and fish sauces to the broth. Raise the heat and cook until starting to boil, then add the chicken tenders and sliced chile pepper.

Simmering the Chicken

Reduce the heat to medium and cook at a low simmer until the chicken is cooked through, about 10 to 15 minutes depending on the thickness. Remove the chicken from broth and set aside until cool enough to handle.

Bok Choy and Green Onions Added

Meanwhile, add the bok choy and green onion to the broth. Optionally, add the Sambal Oelek if you like a little spicy. Simmer until greens are just tender, about 5 minutes.

Shred the chicken tenders with forks, then add back to the pot until warmed through.

Shredded Chicken Added

Serve in bowls with a lime wedge for squeezing into the soup, to taste.

Chicken and Bok Choy Soup

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Asian Pork and Shrimp Noodles with Bok Choy

Asian Pork and Shrimp Noodles with Bok Choy

I had a hankering for fried egg rolls a few weeks ago and thought I was all set with my ingredients, but when I took the egg roll wrappers out of the freezer to defrost, they were totally freezer burnt! I was NOT going to make a trip to the store just for egg roll wrappers, so I put on my thinking cap and decided we could enjoy all the deliciousness of egg rolls — unwrapped! The meal came out perfectly delicious, and just think of all the calories we saved without the fried grease (although I’m not one to pass up a fried egg roll if given the chance).

If you do decide to make this healthier alternative, just make sure you get all your ingredients prepped ahead of time, as it comes together pretty quick once you start cooking.

Asian Pork and Shrimp Noodles with Bok Choy

4 ounces dried rice noodles
1/2 pound ground pork
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil, divided
2 or 3 green onions, chopped (about 1/2 cup)
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon minced ginger
1/2 cup grated carrot (I used bagged)
3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
2 teaspoons fish sauce
2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 cup chicken broth
2 baby bok choy, trimmed and sliced
1/2 pound shrimp (I used frozen deli shrimp)
4 ounces fresh bean sprouts
1 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with 1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon Sambal Oelek (optional)
Lime wedges, for garnish

Asian Pork and Shrimp Noodles Ingredients

Soak rice noodles in hot water according to package directions. (Usually about 10 or 15 minutes.) Drain noodles and set aside. (Ignore my angel hair noodles in the pic and sub in your mind with the green onions I forgot for the shot.) After adding the rice noodles and bean sprouts, I had plenty of food already!)

Browned Ground Pork

In a wok or large skillet, brown the ground pork with 1 teaspoon of toasted sesame oil over medium heat until thoroughly cooked through. Remove from skillet, drain on paper towels, and set aside.

Cooking the Veggies

In the same skillet (without wiping out oil), add the grated carrots and cook about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the ginger, garlic, and green onions, and cook for several more minutes. Remove to a bowl and set aside.

Add another teaspoon of sesame oil to the skillet, then add the sliced bok choy, cooking until just wilted.

Wilted Bok Choy

In a small bowl, whisk together the soy, oyster and fish sauces along with the rice wine vinegar, brown sugar, and chicken broth and pour over the bok choy. Now add all the rest of the ingredients to the skillet (pork, veggies, shrimp, noodles, and bean sprouts.)

Last, stir in the cornstarch slurry and the chili sauce if you like a little spicy and bring up to a simmer. Turn off heat, then serve in bowls with a squeeze of lime wedge.

Asian Pork and Shrimp Noodles with Bok Choy

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Soothing Asian Chicken Noodle Soup

Soothing Asian Chicken Noodle Soup

Mom!? We’re having soup AGAIN??!! You’ve made that like five times already the past week! (Not true.) OK, OK, my soup kick has gotten out of hand. But I’m in comfort mode. It’s winter, the hubby is gone on a business trip for two weeks, my work is crazy busy right now, and that’s what I feel like eating. So there. I did, however, promise the daughter I’d serve her  some “real food” next, although I can’t quite figure out how a good soup for dinner is not real food. Oh well.

So this is another one of my Asian-inspired soups that is a snap to make. I used my Inside-Out Won-Ton Soup broth as the base, but then threw in some new flavors and textures. To make this really simple, I picked up a rotisserie chicken on the way home from my physical therapy after work for my pinky finger (YES, I still can’t straighten the durn thang… apparently in the long healing process my tendon got stuck to the top of my joint and will be awhile to get it unstuck). I also picked up a baby bok choy, which was an astounding $2.99 a pound, but I handled it and it felt pretty light. At the checkout stand it only ended up 53 cents. I can do that! I also picked up some quite spendier fresh basil, as I know I have some cilantro-hater fans (read it’s SOAP!) so I thought I’d throw some of that in to see how that melded.  A fairly decent-priced bag of bean sprouts was also added to the cart. With all that in hand, I traveled home to concoct a really soothing, very slightly spicy, chicken noodle soup. I didn’t bother even looking for rice noodles at the store as I knew they didn’t have any from my prior hunt. So I used Angel Hair pasta snapped in half instead. This took about 35 minutes to make from start to finish to table to eat. Well, it actually took me closer to 45 minutes by dinking with my camera to take pics because I forgot to add the green onion for garnish in my first shots, and when I reshot with them I forgot to do my white balance setting again.My daughter ate it during that process. All in good time.

OK friends, now on to the recipe! Oh, and I made half the amount I normally would, so feel free to double or triple.

Simmering Asian Chicken Noodle Soup

Soothing Asian Chicken Noodle Soup

Angel hair pasta, broken in half
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 large white mushroom, sliced
1/2 tablespoon peeled fresh ginger, chopped
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 or 2 green onions, chopped, white and green parts divided
1 cup baby bok choy, roughly chopped
1 cup fresh spinach, roughly chopped
3 cups homemade or low-sodium chicken or turkey broth
1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
1/2 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1 cup rotisserie chicken, shredded
1 cup fresh bean sprouts
1 tablespoon lime juice
Fresh cilantro, chopped
Fresh basil, chopped

Some of the Asian Soup Ingredients

Put a pot of water on to boil for the pasta, then start gathering and chopping up all the ingredients. Things tend to go quickly when cooking Asian, so it’s always best just to have everything ready. When the water starts boiling, add the pasta and cook according to package directions. I’m sorry I didn’t give you an amount to use, as I’m terrible about measuring or guessing pasta amounts to cook. Go with your gut. If you don’t have enough, that won’t matter much with the soup, or if you have too much, just leave some in the pot for something else. When all your ingredients are ready, heat the sesame oil in a soup pot over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms, ginger, garlic, crushed red pepper, and the white and light green parts of the green onion. Saute for five minutes, then add the broth, soy sauce and rice wine vinegar. Bring this up to a low boil, then turn down to simmer for about 10 minutes. Now add the cooked angel hair pasta, shredded chicken, bean sprouts, bok choy, spinach, and lime juice. Come up to a simmer again, and let the flavors meld for about another 10 minutes. Serve in bowls garnished with the green onion parts, fresh chopped cilantro and/or basil. This was a perfect soothing soup for a cold winter’s night, and I cursed myself for halving the recipe, as the one small  portion of leftovers the next day was fabulous and I was hankering for more.