Kai Keng Khao Poon Chin (Hot Chicken Soup with CHinese Vermicelli)


Serving Size:

1 chicken, washed and gutted
4 tb jelly mushrooms, washed and sliced lengthwise
4-5 shallots, peeled
1 dried squid, soaked & washed, beaten to soften and thinly sliced
3-4 lg potatoes, washed & peeled and cut into cubes of .5 cm
2 hen's eggs made into a thin omelette, folded & cut into strips of 2cm, then sliced thinly lengthwise
3 frangrance mushrooms, soaked and thinly sliced
spring onion, green parts only, chopped
coriander leaves, chopped
salt
fish sauce
ground black pepper
1 whole spring onion, bulb included
1 coriander roots
1 bowl Chinese vermicelli, soaked and cut up
  • After preparing all the above ingredients, put a soup pot on the fire. In it put three metal jugfuls (3 pints) of water. Add a sprinkle of salt, the whole spring onion and the coriander roots. Place the lid on the pot and leave it until the contents come to the boil. Then put the whole chicken into the pot. Keep the lid on and leave it until the chicken is well cooked.
  • Take the pot off the fire. Remove the chicken to a platter. Take off the breast meat only, shred this and put it on a plate.
  • Pour the broth through a strainer. Place the pot of strained broth back on the fire and leave it until it comes to the boil. Then add the fish sauce, shallots and mushrooms. When the shallots are cooked, add the potatoes, the shredded chicken breast, Chinese vermicelli and squid. When all these are cooked, taste and check the saltiness. Take the pot off the fire and add the sliced omelette.
  • Serve the soup in a bowl and garnish it with the chopped spring onion leaves and coriander leaves, and the ground black pepper. Serve with Jaew Kapi(shrimp paste sauce).
  • ***NOTE: If you wish to make Keng Hon Sin Moo (Hot soup with pork) you would need the same ingredients (but substituting pork for chicken). The difference in preparation is that a lot of pork bones should be used to make the broth; and in addition there should be slices of pork to put in the soup. The rest of the method is the same.
  • One must not be too lavish in adding other ingredients, or else the dish will turn into an Or (see page 58). If it is called a Keng, this means that we want to eat the soup more than the meat.
From: TRADITIONAL RECIPES OF LAOS by Phia Sing; ISBN 0 907325 60 2



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