A tomato and saffron infused chicken broth stars in this Cuban Chicken Noodle Soup brimming with noodles and flavour!
At the heart of this comforting Cuban Chicken Soup recipe is a delicious chicken stock rich with the Cuban flavours of saffron, cumin and lime.
The delicate sweetness of slow-cooked tomatoes and onion, beautifully balanced by a dash of lime juice gives a sweet and sour twist to the chicken broth. Generous amounts of noodles, together with potatoes, carrots and tender pieces of chicken, complete this cheering Cuban Chicken Noodle Soup.
🍗 Ingredients
Cuban Chicken Stock Ingredients
- Tomatoes. Avoid those pale, rock-solid tomatoes that are available all year round. You want soft, sun-ripened, in season sweet red tomatoes for this soup. If you are not able to get these, use tinned tomatoes instead.
- Onion
- Garlic Cloves
- Bay leaf
- Cumin
- Chicken. For maximum flavour use a whole chicken jointed, or bone-in chicken pieces such as thighs or legs. I used 4 whole legs (thigh and leg in one piece) for the soup photographed.
- Black Peppercorns
- Saffron. You can use either strands of saffron or powdered. I used powdered saffron for the soup shown pictured.
- Salt
- Water (not pictured)
See the Recipe Card below for quantities and the full recipe.
🥔 Additional Ingredients for Cuban Chicken Noodle Soup
- Onion
- Potatoes
- Carrots
- Olive oil (not pictured)
- Noodles. Thin fideo noodles are usually recommended. Fideo noodles are like short pieces of spaghetti and are commonly used in Spanish, Mexican and Cuban dishes. They come in different thicknesses, for instance fideo#2 and fideo#4. The higher the number the greater the thickness. Vermicelli or angel hair pasta are good alternatives to fideo noodles. Angel hair pasta is a little thinner than vermicelli. I used vermicelli pasta for the soup shown in the photograph. Otherwise, spaghetti broken into short pieces works well also.
- Limes. You can use lemons instead of limes and substitute the lime juice with fresh lemon juice. I use just the juice of 1 lime in the soup, but I like to have a second lime for slicing into wedges so that I can serve the soup with a slice of lime.
- Parsley or coriander leaf (cilantro) (optional)
See the Recipe Card below for quantities and the full recipe.
🍽 Equipment
No special equipment is needed for this soup. I have listed the key useful items below.
- large saucepan with lid
- sieve to strain soup
- storage container or extra saucepan for storing stock whilst preparing additional soup ingredients
- chopping board + knives
🔪 Instructions
Cuban Chicken Stock
Step 1. Prepare the tomatoes, onion and garlic for the chicken stock. Cut the tomatoes into quarters. Peel the onion and cut into quarters. Peel the garlic cloves. I cut the garlic shown in the photograph in half, but you can leave the garlic whole.
Step 2. Place all the ingredients, chicken, tomatoes, onion, garlic, bay leaves, cumin, peppercorns, saffron, salt and cold water into a large cooking pot. If the water does not cover all the ingredients, add some more until they are. Bring the water to a boil and then skim the scum from the surface as this appears. Lower the heat until the water is at a slow simmer, with just the occasional bubble breaking the surface. Partially cover the saucepan, changing the amount the saucepan is covered to maintain this slow rolling simmer, and simmer for 2 hours.
Step 3. Remove the pot from the heat. Take out the chicken pieces and bay leaves from the chicken broth and set the chicken aside. Strain the chicken broth through a sieve. I use the back of a spoon to push down on the soft cooked tomato, onion and garlic caught by the sieve so that as much of their soft pulp as possible also passes through the sieve.
Step 4. Once cooled, I like to place the chicken broth in the fridge overnight. This allows any fat will rise to the top and solidify. The solidified fat can then be easily removed with a spoon. You can, of course, skip this step.
From Chicken Stock to Chicken Noodle Soup
Step 5. Remove the chicken flesh from the bones. I find it easiest to wait until the chicken has cooled so that I can get stuck in and do this with my hands (rather than using forks, knives etc). If you plan to freeze the soup, you can either stop at this step and freeze the broth and shredded chicken or continue until you have completed Step 7 and then freeze [see the Make Ahead section below].
Step 6. Prepare the additional ingredients for the chicken noodle soup. Finely chop the onion. Chop the carrots and potatoes into small cubes.
Step 7. Add sufficient olive oil to cover the base of the cooking pot. Gently fry the onions, carrots and potatoes for about 5 minutes. Then add the Cuban chicken broth and heat until it reaches a gentle simmer.
Step 8. Add the shredded chicken pieces.
Step 9. Add the vermicelli. Continue to gently simmer the soup for just a few minutes until the pasta is cooked through. The cooking time will vary dependent upon the type of pasta you use.
Step 10. Take the soup off the heat. Check if more salt or pepper is needed. I then like to add the juice from 1 of the limes, cutting the remaining lime into wedges. Serve with a slice of lime and a sprinkle of parsley or coriander (cilantro).
⏲️ Make Ahead
In Stages
This is a great soup to make ahead and in stages as you have time in the day. For instance, you can make the chicken stock a day or two ahead, shred the chicken the day after making the stock, and then put all ingredients together for the final cooking on the day of eating.
Freezing this Soup
You can even prepare way ahead and freeze the chicken stock and shredded chicken (I freeze these separately) until needed. The soup can be frozen with the carrots and potatoes, however, their texture may change becoming much softer and breaking easier.
If freezing ahead, do not freeze the soup with the noodles added. The noodles will become much more mushy after freezing and are likely to disintegrate when the soup is thawed and reheated.
⭐ Sources and Inspiration
To create a truly authentic Cuban Chicken Soup, I used two Cuban Cookbooks as my starting point: Memories of a Cuban Kitchen and The Cuban Table.
The more recently published Cuban Table is a beautifully illustrated book with sumptuous photographs of both the Cuban dishes and Cuba itself. The author, Ana Sofía Peláez, has collected the recipes during her time visiting Cuba, as well as from Cuban cooks living in the United States. The inspiration for transforming Cuban chicken stock into Cuban Chicken Noodle Soup comes from this book.
Memories of a Cuban Kitchen is a very different cookbook. The author gives a fascinating insight into her childhood growing up in Cuba pre-revolution. It is a very poignant book and I love her style of writing. There are no photographs of the dishes, however, the recipes are very easy to follow and the method for cooking the chicken stock comes from this book.
📋 Recipe Card
Cuban Chicken Noodle Soup (Sopa de Pollo)
Equipment
- large saucepan with lid
- sieve to strain soup
- storage container or extra saucepan for keeping stock whilst preparing additional soup ingredients
- ladle
- chopping board + knives
Ingredients
- 4-5 ripe plum tomatoes
- 1 onion (medium-sized)
- 4-5 cloves of garlic
- 2 bay leaves
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- 5-6 lbs (1.5kg) chicken pieces (whole chicken jointed or bone-in chicken pieces such as legs and thighs)
- 6 black peppercorns (plus ground pepper as needed for fine-tuning flavouring)
- ¼ teaspoon powdered saffron (4 saffron strands)
- 1 teaspoon salt (plus extra as needed for fine-tuning flavouring)
- 12 cups (6 pints) (3 litres) water
- 1 onion (small or medium sized)
- 4 potatoes (medium sized)
- 2 carrots
- 3-4 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 cups (5oz) (140g) vermicelli
- 2 limes (1 for cooking and 1 for serving)
- parsley or coriander (cilantro) leaves for serving
Instructions
- Prepare the tomatoes, onion and garlic for the chicken stock. Cut the tomatoes into quarters. Peel the onion and cut into quarters. Peel the garlic cloves. I cut the garlic shown in the photograph in half, but you can leave the garlic whole.
- Place all the ingredients, chicken, tomatoes, onion, garlic, bay leaves, cumin, peppercorns, saffron, salt and cold water into a large cooking pot. If the water does not cover all the ingredients, add some more until they are. Bring the water to a boil and then skim the scum from the surface as this appears. Lower the heat until the water is at a slow simmer, with just the occasional bubble breaking the surface. Partially cover the saucepan, changing the amount the saucepan is covered to maintain this slow rolling simmer, and simmer for about 2 hours. After this time, the chicken should fall away from the bone with ease.
- Remove the pot from the heat. Take out the chicken pieces and bay leaves from the chicken broth and set the chicken aside. Strain the chicken broth through a sieve. The back of a spoon can be used to push down on the soft cooked tomato, onion and garlic caught by the sieve so that as much of their soft pulp as possible also passes through the sieve.
- Once cooled, a simple way to remove excess fat is to place the chicken broth in the fridge overnight. This allows any fat to rise to the top and solidify. The solidified fat can then be easily removed using a spoon, leaving the stock below. This step can, of course, be skipped.
- Remove the chicken flesh from the bones. If you plan to freeze the soup, you can either stop at this step and freeze the broth and shredded chicken or continue until you have completed Step 7 and then freeze.
- Prepare the additional ingredients for the chicken noodle soup. Finely chop the onion. Chop the carrots and potatoes into small cubes, small enough to easily fit onto a soup spoon.
- Add sufficient olive oil to cover the base of the saucepan. Gently fry the onions, carrots and potatoes for about 5 minutes. Then add the Cuban chicken broth and heat until it reaches a gentle simmer.
- Add the shredded chicken pieces.
- Add the vermicelli. Continue to gently simmer the soup until the pasta is cooked through.
- Take the soup off the heat. Check if more salt of pepper is needed, and squeeze the juice of 1 lime into the soup. Slice the remaining lime into wedges. Finely chop the parsley or coriander leaves (cilantro). Serve the soup with a slice of lime and a sprinkle of parsley or coriander leaves.
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