Filipino soup

Chicken Sotanghon Soup

Name: Chicken Sotanghon Soup
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 50 min
Yield: 5 servings
Cuisine: Filipino
Ingredients: 200 g Super Q Sotanghon; 1 whole chicken leg quarter, or 500 g chicken pieces; 8 cups water; 1 cup dried wood ear mushrooms, soaked and sliced (optional); 4 cloves garlic, minced; 1 medium onion, chopped; 1 thumb ginger, sliced; 2 medium carrots, cut into matchsticks; 2 cups cabbage or pechay, chopped; 1 tbsp annatto (atsuete) oil, for colour (optional); 2 tbsp fish sauce; 2 tbsp cooking oil; Salt and ground pepper, to taste; Fried garlic, spring onions and hard-boiled egg, to serve

The bowl you bring to someone you love when the weather turns.

Clear chicken soup with Super Q Sotanghon mung bean vermicelli, carrots and cabbage, finished with fried garlic. The Filipino way of looking after someone.

Jump to recipe

Prep: 15 min
Cook: 35 min
Total: 50 min
Serves: 5 servings

Three packs of Super Q Sotanghon mung bean vermicelli beside a bowl of chicken sotanghon soup with shredded chicken, carrots and fried shallots

Sotanghon soup is what gets cooked when someone in the house is unwell, and when the weather turns. Super Q Sotanghon is a mung bean vermicelli — the strands turn translucent and slippery rather than soft, and they hold their shape in hot broth instead of dissolving into it.

Its flavour is neutral, so the broth has to carry the dish.

Ingredients

200 g Super Q Sotanghon
1 whole chicken leg quarter, or 500 g chicken pieces
8 cups water
1 cup dried wood ear mushrooms, soaked and sliced (optional)
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, chopped
1 thumb ginger, sliced
2 medium carrots, cut into matchsticks
2 cups cabbage or pechay, chopped
1 tbsp annatto (atsuete) oil, for colour (optional)
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp cooking oil
Salt and ground pepper, to taste
Fried garlic, spring onions and hard-boiled egg, to serve

Instructions

1
Make the broth
Simmer the chicken in the water with the ginger until tender, about 30 minutes. Remove the chicken, shred the meat, and keep the broth.
2
Soak the sotanghon
Soak the Super Q Sotanghon following the pack instructions until the strands turn translucent and pliable. Drain and set aside.
3
Sauté
Heat the oil in a pot and sauté the garlic and onion until fragrant. Add the shredded chicken and the wood ear mushrooms and stir for a minute.
4
Season the broth
Pour the reserved broth back in. Add the fish sauce and the annatto oil if using, season with salt and pepper, and bring to a simmer.
5
Add vegetables and noodles
Add the carrots and cook until just tender. Add the cabbage, then the drained sotanghon, and simmer only until heated through — a minute or two is enough.
6
Serve
Ladle into bowls and top with fried garlic, spring onions and egg.

Tips

Sotanghon keeps absorbing broth while it sits. If you are making it ahead, keep the noodles and the soup separate and combine in the bowl.

Fried garlic at the end is not optional in most Filipino kitchens — it is most of the aroma.

Cooking it for someone you love

Sotanghon soup is how Filipino families look after each other. When someone you love needs looking after, a pot of this says it without anyone having to say it.

Bring the noodles and the soup in separate containers and combine them in the bowl. That way it is just as good when it arrives.

Selling it: sotanghon soup pang-negosyo

Soup sells when it rains. Sotanghon soup is easy to batch: make the broth and vegetables ahead, and soak the noodles in small lots through the day.

Store the noodles and broth separately and combine them per bowl, so the last order is as good as the first.
Offer it as a rainy-day special on your page. Timing does the marketing for you.

Buying noodles in bulk for your business? See wholesale and distributor orders.