Chinese Hot and Sour Soup

Chinese New Year

As a child, my mother went to great lengths each year to prepare a Chinese New Year feast which could feed our entire neighbourhood.

The menu always featured a sticky rice cake filled with mung beans and pork, a Chinese Turnip Cake, endless platters of spring rolls (egg rolls), roast pork with gorgeously seasoned crackling – all served with fresh vermicelli noodles, picked carrots and daikon, and an abundance of fresh salad and herbs. 

There was always a soup on the menu, too; often a light chicken broth with bamboo shoots.

Each dish had a significance and the ingredients were always carefully chosen to welcome luck and prosperity into the family.

Chinese Hot and Sour Soup

I make a Vietnamese Chicken Pho throughout the year, so to do something a bit different for Chinese New Year, I like to make a Chinese hot and sour chicken soup, which includes bamboo shoots to symbolise wealth.

You might recognise this soup from many Chinese restaurants – there is something addictive about the tangle of hot, sour and spicy notes in this soup, and I find it to be a nourishing and comforting soup no matter the time of the year.

Hot and Sour Soup Recipe

You could add whatever vegetables you like to this hot and sour soup, although I like to keep it simple by using a mixture of mushrooms – the type and how many depends on what I can find at the markets.

You could even make a vegetarian version of this soup by using vegetable stock and adding cubes of silken tofu towards the end of cooking.

If you are serving this soup to children, I would suggest leaving the chillies out and to, instead, serve some freshly chopped chillies on the side for the adults.

I would suggest using the recipe below merely as a blueprint as you will find that it can accommodate a lot of variation here and there.

5 stars (2 reviews)

Chinese Hot and Sour Soup

Thanh | Eat, Little Bird

Prep20 minutes mins

Cook30 minutes mins

Total50 minutes mins

Serves: 3 to 4

This Hot and Sour Soup is a Chinese restaurant classic which tastes even more delicious homemade!

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Ingredients

• 1-2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 300 g (11 oz) chicken breast fillets
• 1 tablespoon ginger, coarsely grated
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• 2-3 red chillies, or to taste, finely chopped
• 100 g (3 ½ oz) fresh shitake mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 100 g (3 ½ oz) oyster mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 1 ½ litres (6 cups) Asian Chicken Stock, or chicken stock with stock cubes
• 60 ml (¼ cup) Shaoxing cooking wine
• 90 ml (⅓ cup) soy sauce
• 60 ml (¼ cup) white vinegar, or rice vinegar, or more to taste
• 200 g (7 oz) canned sliced bamboo shoots
• 3-4 tablespoons cornflour, (US: cornstarch)
• spring onions, (scallions) finely sliced
• coriander, (cilantro) finely chopped

Instructions 

1. In a large saucepan which will take all of the ingredients later, heat the oil.
2. Cook the chicken breast fillets until lightly golden on each side.
3. Remove the chicken from the pan and leave to rest on a plate.
4. Turn the heat down to medium and add the ginger, garlic and chillies.
5. Stir-fry for a few minutes until fragrant.
6. Add the mushrooms to the pan and cook for a few minutes until they have softened.
7. Add the chicken stock, Chinese cooking wine, soy sauce and rice vinegar.
8. Bring the mixture to a boil and then let it simmer gently for 10-15 minutes.
9. Meanwhile, shred the chicken breast fillets and add them to the soup, along with the sliced bamboo shoots.
10. Mix the cornflour (cornstarch) with some cold water to make a slurry.
11. Slowly add slurry to the soup while stirring the soup at the same time to avoid lumps in the soup. The soup should have a slightly thickened consistency. Keep adding more slurry to the soup until you have the desired thickness; if your soup is too thick, simply thin it with some boiling water from a kettle.
12. Taste the soup for seasoning. You may wish to add some more soy sauce and/or rice vinegar.
13. Serve with a generous sprinkle of spring onions (scallions) and coriander (cilantro).

Kitchen Notes

• VARIATIONS
  As mentioned above, you can add whatever vegetables you like to this soup. Some suggestions include finely shredded Chinese cabbage, sliced green beans, or diced capsicums (bell peppers).
• MAKE IT VEGETARIAN
  For a vegetarian version, simply replace the chicken stock with vegetable stock, and omit the chicken. Silken or firm tofu is a delicious alternative to meat in this recipe.
• ADD AN EGG
  For a more substantial soup, beat 1 egg in a small bowl. While the soup is simmering, slowly pour in the beaten egg, but make sure you stir the soup quickly so that the egg forms thin ribbons in the soup.
• ROTISSERIE CHICKEN
  For a quick short-cut, replace the chicken breast fillets in this recipe with shredded rotisserie chicken (barbecued chicken).
• OVEN & STOVE TEMPERATURES
  All recipes on this website have been tested on an induction stove and/or with a conventional oven (i.e. an oven without fan). All recipes on this website use temperatures for a conventional oven, unless otherwise mentioned. Convection ovens (i.e. fan-forced ovens) are typically 20°C/70°F hotter than conventional ovens, but please check your manufacturer’s handbook.
• CONVERSIONS
  To convert from cups to grams, and vice-versa, please see this handy Conversion Chart for Basic Ingredients.

Nutrition Information Nutrition Information

Calories: 287kcal, Carbohydrates: 24.4g, Protein: 25.3g, Fat: 9.5g, Cholesterol: 47.3mg, Sodium: 1289.1mg, Fiber: 2.1g, Sugar: 9.6g

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Update

This recipe was first published on 3 February 2016. It has been updated with more comprehensive recipe notes.

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