Caldo de Pollo

I mentioned last week that I pulled off the soup twofer - the Thai Curry Sweet Potato Soup served as the modern Tomato soup to our grilled panini and Caldo de Pollo headlined the dinner hour.

Caldo.  Broth or Stew

Pollo.  Chicken

Ok so now we’re current on my command of Spanish.

 

Chicken soup - what’s the deal?  Aren’t they all the same? Let me answer that with two words - Cilantro Bomb!  That’s how I describe the finishing moves on this soup (If you are amongst the cilantro aversionists feel free to move along).  The cilantro bomb brings together cilantro, lime juice and jalapeño - the latin trifecta.  The ‘bomb’ describes what happens when you drop this pureed mixture into an otherwise earthy, homey soup.  The lime and cilantro bloom in the hot soup and takes this dish straight to 11.

I first came across this soup in The Soup Peddler’s Slow and Difficult Soups: Recipes and Reveries (which is a catchy name and a wonderfully quirky book and includes an awesome recipe for Ash-e-joh - an Iranian/Persian barley soup)

I’ve made this soup more than any other single soup recipe in my adult life - while I followed the Soup Peddler’s recipe faithfully to start, I’m now playing fast and loose based on what veg is in the larder and how much time I have (whole raw chicken to start or store bought roasted bird to strip).  For me the magic is the earthiness of cumin, the creaminess of well cooked potato and then Pow! - the cilantro bomb.

If you make this with leftover or store bought roasted chicken skip the initial 30-45 minutes and bring the stock to a slow boil then continue with the recipe.

Salt to taste before adding the tomato paste and rice - if you’re using a store bought stock the salt content varies widely - potatoes have a way of soaking up the salt so be sure to taste a potato while sampling.

Final note - this soup is even better the following day - I like to reserve a bit of the cilantro bomb to add after reheating.