Little chunks of chicken are cooked with sweetcorn and stock, plus a couple of little flavor enhancers – like white pepper and sesame oil. It’s all finished off with that classic fluffy egg feathered into the broth. Utterly delicious and ready in 20 minutes!
Have you ever made egg drop soup? It’s also sometimes called egg flower soup – due to the way the egg feathers and ‘flowers’ out as it’s stirred into the hot liquid.
This egg drop soup also contains little chunks of chicken – to turn it into that restaurant favorite – chicken & sweetcorn soup.
It’s simple to make, tasty, and pretty economical. You can serve it as a starter or as part of a few Chinese-style dishes for a buffet.
If I’m serving it for dinner, I also like to serve it alongside some fried rice or maybe some sesame prawn toast to make it filling enough for my always-hungry kids.
- Chicken breast – we only need one small chicken breast for four servings of this soup – the chicken is chopped into small pieces. You can replace it with 2-3 chicken thighs if you prefer.
- Chicken stock (chicken broth): you can use homemade chicken stock or stock made with stock cubes.
- Sesame oil – this adds a lovely, very slightly nutty flavor and aroma to the soup.
- Sweetcorn – I use tinned corn kernels, and I mush them up a little, so we get some creamy corn paste and some whole grains, but you can replace them with creamed corn if you prefer (creamed corn isn’t readily available in the UK).
- Cornflour to make a cornflour slurry (corn starch slurry)- to thicken the soup.
- Eggs – These are whisked and added to the soup to make those lovely ribbons in the soup.
- Garlic, salt, and white pepper for flavor – I use white pepper to give a tiny touch of warmth to the taste.
INGREDIENTS
- One tablespoon of sesame oil
- Two cloves garlic – peeled and minced
- 1 liter (4 cups + 3 tbsp) good quality chicken stock
- One small chicken breast – approx. 150g/5.3oz, chopped into small chunks (approx.1cm cubed)
- 198 g (7oz) tin sweetcorn, drained
- 1/8 teaspoon white pepper
- Two tablespoons cornflour (cornstarch in USA) – mixed with 6 tbsp water
- Two medium eggs – whisked
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
INSTRUCTIONS
- Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a low-medium heat.
- One tablespoon of sesame oil
- Add the garlic and cook gently, while stirring, for 1 minute.
- Two cloves garlic
- Add the chicken stock and diced chicken, turn up the heat, and bring to a boil.
- 1 liter (4 cups + 3 tbsp) good quality chicken stock, one small chicken breast
- Simmer for 5 minutes.
- Give the sweetcorn a bit of mush with the end of a rolling pin so that it’s a bit mushed up, but around half the sweetcorn kernels are still whole.
- 198 g (7oz) tin sweetcorn, drained
- Add the sweetcorn to the pan along with the white pepper and mix.
- 1/8 teaspoon white pepper
- Bring back to the boil and simmer for a further 5 minutes.
- Slow stir in the cornflour slurry to thicken the soup slightly.
- Two tablespoons cornflour (cornstarch in USA)
- While slowly stirring, add the whisked egg in a thin stream. It should feather out in the liquid as it cooks.
- Two medium eggs
- Have a taste of the soup and add in the salt if needed (it depends on the saltiness of your stock).
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- Divide between bowls and garnish with chopped spring onions before serving.
- Two spring onions