Cuban Chicken Noodle Soup (Sopa de Pollo)
A tomato and saffron infused chicken broth stars in this Cuban Chicken Noodle Soup brimming with noodles and flavour!
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.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!