Chicken and Sweetcorn Soup – Nicky’s Kitchen Sanctuary

Chinese-style chicken and sweetcorn soup is easier to make than you might think.

Little chunks of chicken are cooked with sweetcorn and stock, plus couple of little flavour enhancers – like white pepper and sesame oil. It’s all finished off with that classic fluffy egg, feathered into the broth. Utterly scrumptious and ready in 20 minutes!

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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 to chicken – to turn it into that restaurant favourite – 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 alongside some fried rice or maybe some sesame prawn toast to make it filling enough for my always-hungry kids.

📋 What do we need?

• 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 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 flavour 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 kernels, but you can replace 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 flavour – I use white pepper to give a tiny touch of warmth to the flavour.

👩‍🍳PRO TIP Pour the egg mixture into the broth in a thin stream, whilst stirring the soup – this will ensure you get that lovely fluffy finish to the egg.

I love to top with lots of sliced spring onions before serving.

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Chicken and Sweetcorn Soup

Easy Chinese-style chicken and sweetcorn soup, made from scratch, in less than 20 minutes. A quick family favourite!

Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Cook Time 15 minutes mins

Course Appetizer, Starter

Cuisine Chinese

Servings 4

Calories 166 kcal

INSTRUCTIONS 

• Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a low-medium heat.

  1 tablespoon sesame oil

• Add the garlic and cook gently, whilst stirring, for 1 minute.

  2 cloves garlic

• Add the chicken stock and diced chicken and bring to the boil.

  1 litre (4 cups + 3 tbsp) good quality chicken stock, 1 small chicken breast

• Simmer for 5 minutes

• Give the sweetcorn a bit of a 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 together.

  ⅛ 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.

  2 tablespoons cornflour (cornstarch in USA)

• Whilst slowly stirring, add the whisked egg in a thin stream. It should feather out in the liquid as it cooks.

  2 medium eggs

• Have a taste of the soup and add in the salt if needed (it depends on the saltiness of your stock).

  ¼ teaspoon salt

• Divide between bowls and garnish with chopped spring onions before serving.

  2 spring onions

✎ Notes

Make ahead 
This soup can be made ahead. Simply make the soup, then cool, cover and refrigerate for up to three days.
Reheat in a pan, or microwave, stirring often, until piping hot throughout.
Make it vegetarian
Replace the chicken stock with vegetable stock and replace the chicken with tofu pieces or  vegetarian chicken-style chunks. 
Scaling the recipe up or down.
You can double or halve the recipe, sticking to the same ingredient ratios.
If doubling, it will take a few minutes longer cooking time. 
Halving the recipe will still be the same cooking time.
Can I use cooked chicken?
Yes, you can use cooked, leftover shredded chicken. Simply add the chicken in with the sweetcorn (no need to simmer the stock for 5 minutes in the previous step).
Ingredient additions:

• Add extra vegetables – peas, mushrooms, sliced mange tout and little pieces of broccoli all taste great – add them in with the sweetcorn.
• Small chunks of potato or carrots also work well. You can add them with the chicken pieces and stock, but cook for an additional 5 minutes before adding the sweetcorn.
• Add hot sauce, chilli flakes or minced ginger for a hint of heat.
• Soy sauce for a bit of extra umami flavour.

Nutritional information is approximate, per serving (this recipe serves 4).

Nutrition

Calories: 166kcalCarbohydrates: 12gProtein: 13gFat: 8gSaturated Fat: 2gPolyunsaturated Fat: 2gMonounsaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0.01gCholesterol: 106mgSodium: 1039mgPotassium: 266mgFiber: 1gSugar: 3gVitamin A: 212IUVitamin C: 3mgCalcium: 29mgIron: 1mg

Keywords Chinese soup, quick soup

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Hi I’m Nicky

I love to cook and I want to share with you my favourite, delicious family friendly recipes. I want to inspire you to create fantastic food for your family every day.

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