Chicken and Sweetcorn Soup

I love sweetcorn in all forms! Grilled, steamed, in salads, in soups, popcorn and even straight out of the can! When I was much younger, I used to place a can of creamed corn in the fridge, opened it and eat it straight away. I know it's not the most sophisticated way of eating it but it tasted great! somewhat like ice cream!

One of my fave is the Chicken and Sweetcorn soup, one dish that is usually ordered when we dine out as a family. Being away from home, I seem to have forgotten about it until Lisa from My Lemony Kitchen posted it recently. I've no idea why I didn't think of making it earlier but am glad that I finally did! Initially, I wanted to follow strictly to Lisa's recipe but I couldn't find creamed corn anywhere!  I guess it should be sold in Chinatown but I didn't get a chance to drop by so I decided to come up with my own recipe. The husband loved it so it's a winner!

It's a rather long winded recipe and I decided to do everything from scratch, that being the stock and poaching the chicken, all on the same day. It was well worth the effort though! Feel free to use pre-prepared stock or left over chicken.  For a vegetarian version, just leave out the chicken and it'll taste great too!


Inspired by My Lemony Kitchen


Ingredients (Makes about 3 big bowls)
Stock & Chicken
1 medium carrot, roughly chopped
2 sticks celery, roughly chopped
1 spring onion/scallions, roughly chopped
1 medium onion, quartered
3 cloves garlic, smashed
8 whole black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
1 litre of water
3 chicken breasts or chicken thighs

Soup
1 can sweetcorn
50g frozen corn
2 eggs, whisked
3 tbsp corn flour mixed with 6 tbsp of water
Sesame Oil
Salt 
White pepper
Sliced spring onions and chilli, to garnish(Optional)


Method
Stock & Chicken
1) Place all stock ingredients except the chicken in pot and bring it to a boil.
2) Once it comes to a boil, turn down the heat and  simmer for at least an hour. You may need to top up the water.
3) Add chicken to the stock, bring it to boil, lower the heat and let it simmer for another 15 mins or until chicken is cooked. (Poaching the chicken in the stock adds even more flavour)
4) Once this is done, remove from the heat. Shred the chicken and set aside. Carefully pour the stock through a sieve and squeeze the day lights out of the vegetables. 


Soup
5) Pour the stock back into the pot, add canned and frozen corn and bring back to a boil.
6) Stir in the corn flour mixture.
7) Slowly pour in the egg whilst stirring the soup.
8) Lower the heat and simmer for another 1-2 mins until egg is cooked.
9) Season to taste
10) Place shredded chicken into the bowls, scoop soup into bowls, garnish with spring onions and chilli, drizzle some sesame oil and serve.