Chinese Chicken Soup with Mushrooms and Rice Noodles Recipe
This Chinese chicken soup with mushrooms and rice noodles is a homemade dish that warms you up on cooler days. A delicate ginger broth, pieces of chicken, tender mushrooms and rice noodles create something between a clear soup and a light stew. It’s the perfect bowl of comfort when you need something hot and filling, but not heavy.
Light soups with chicken, mushrooms and rice noodles like this are popular in home cooking in southern China, where they often replace the classic duo of clear soup plus a separate main course. Many families use leftover roasted or boiled chicken from the previous day as the base for this kind of dish.
A light yet satisfying soup that combines aromatic ginger broth, tender chicken and mushrooms with delicate rice noodles, making it both comforting and easy to digest.
Why this version works
- Cooking the noodles separately keeps them from overcooking and soaking up all the broth.
- Using the strained soaking liquid from the shiitake boosts umami without needing bouillon cubes.
- Removing the ginger and garlic after they release their aroma gives you a clear, smooth broth without fibrous bits of spices.
Chef's tips
If you like a clearer broth, briefly blanch the chicken pieces in boiling water and rinse before adding them to the stock. Adjust the amount of soy sauce depending on how salty your stock is.
How to serve
Serve the soup very hot in deep bowls, with extra chili oil, soy sauce and lime wedges on the side so everyone can customize their bowl.
Watch out for
- Don’t keep the soup at a hard boil for long – the broth will turn cloudy and the chicken will become dry and stringy.
- Rice noodles soften very quickly; take them out of the water while they’re still slightly springy, as they’ll finish cooking in the bowl with the hot broth.
Substitutions
- You can replace shiitake with button mushrooms or oyster mushrooms, bearing in mind that the flavor will be milder.
- Chicken stock can be swapped for vegetable stock, and the chicken for tofu, for a semi-vegetarian version.
- Napa cabbage can be replaced with pak choi or tender white cabbage cut into thin strips.
Ingredients
- skinless, boneless chicken thigh or chicken breast cut into thin strips - 350 g
- rice noodles - 150 g
- shiitake mushrooms, fresh or dried soak dried mushrooms beforehand - 80 g
- carrot cut into thin half-slices - 1 piece
- Chinese cabbage cut into strips - 150 g
- fresh ginger about 2–3 mm thick slices - 4 slices
- garlic lightly crushed - 2 cloves
- chicken or vegetable stock - 1.2 l
- soy sauce - 3 tablespoons
- sesame oil for aroma, can be omitted - 0.5 teaspoons
- salt to taste
- black pepper - 0.25 teaspoons
- chives or spring onion chopped, for sprinkling - 2 tablespoons
Preparation
- If you are using dried shiitake mushrooms, pour hot water over them and set aside for 20 minutes until they soften. Then squeeze out the excess liquid and cut into strips, reserving the soaking water.
- Pour hot water over the rice noodles and set aside for 5–10 minutes (or according to the package instructions) until they soften. Drain and set aside.
- Bring the stock to a boil in a large pot. If you have mushroom soaking water, add it to the stock, being careful not to pour in any grit from the bottom.
- Add the ginger slices and crushed garlic cloves to the stock. Simmer over low heat for 5 minutes so the broth develops aroma.
- Add the chicken strips and carrot. Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through and the carrot is tender.
- Add the sliced shiitake mushrooms and Chinese cabbage. Cook for another 5–7 minutes, until the cabbage softens.
- Remove the ginger slices and garlic from the soup if you don’t want to eat them.
- Add soy sauce, sesame oil, pepper and salt to taste. Stir.
- Place portions of the soaked rice noodles into bowls, then ladle the hot soup with chicken and vegetables over the noodles.
- Before serving, sprinkle the soup with chopped chives or spring onion.
Storage
No storage information available for this dish.
This is my go-to soup when I want something warming and fragrant but not too heavy. The combination of ginger, garlic and sesame oil always makes the kitchen smell inviting.
