Egg Drop Soup with Chicken

Since I just finished eating a bowl of this soup, I thought I'd share my recipe. If you love Asian food as much I do, I believe you will like this recipe I came up with. Usually the Egg Drop soups in restaurants, have mostly eggs and broth. I have eaten in 100's of Chinese restaurants in my life time, and just came up with a combination of those soups, plus a few ingredients I added on my own. The very important KEY to making this soup taste Asian, is the toasted sesame oil! (It has to say "toasted" sesame oil or it won't be good )

I have been to China and Japan so I know what authentic Asian food tastes like. My favorite Chinese restaurant in the Dayton, Oh area is the Xenia China Inn. If you know of others that taste authentic, please let me know.

Update: the China Inn closed, then a few years later they opened back up again, but the food is not nearly as good as it was before. Everybody says that. It's disappointing. Another update: They closed for good because the owner died during the pandemic.

Mary Jane's Loaded Egg Drop Soup

Mary Jane's Egg Drop Soup

Serves 6

 ¼ - ½ cup chopped shallot

 1 - 49.5 oz can chicken broth plus 2 cups water with 2-3 tsps instant chicken bouillon added (or instead of the instant bouillon, you can just add a small can of chicken broth) Adding more broth just makes more soup. The day I made this I just didn't have more canned broth, but either way it's good.

2 - 6 teaspoons "toasted" sesame seed oil (or to taste-some recipes call for only 1 tsp, but I like a lot!)

½ - ¾ cup frozen peas (optional)

½ - ¾ cup frozen corn  (dont leave out!)

1 large can mushroom, drained OR shiitake mushrooms

1 can sliced water chestnuts, drained (cut each slice into slivers)

 Add to taste: garlic powder, fresh (or powdered) ginger, soy sauce (or GF coconut aminos ) and white pepper. Adding these will make it a little tastier. White pepper is a little hot, so be careful how much you put in. 

¼ of a 40 oz. bag skinless and boneless chicken tenderloins (or 4 - 5 tenderloins)

4 - 8 eggs, whisked in a bowl

Chopped green onions for garnish 

Fresh spinach - optional 

1 Tablespoon cornstarch (for thickening the soup)

 

My Loaded Egg Drop Soup

Note: some recipes on YouTube  add a little yellow food coloring because it's yellow in Chinese restaurants. I have not done that but might  next time I make it. 3/11/21: I made this again tonight (without the chicken) and added turmeric for color. 

This bowl has a little less ingredients

Pour all chicken broth in a large pot, and let it come to a boil. Meanwhile, cut up chicken in very small, bite size pieces. When broth comes to a boil, turn the heat down a little and then put raw chicken in boiling broth. Add mushrooms, peas, corn and water chestnuts and spices. Cook about 10 minutes. While soup is cooking, whisk eggs in a bowl. Add sesame oil to the soup. With one hand, pour eggs very slowly (at short intervals) while you are swirling a fork around in the boiling broth. This will make the eggs stringy. Make sure you do not pour too much of the eggs at one time, or they will clump up. 

If you want the soup to be a little thicker, put 1 Tb cornstarch in a small bowl with about 2 tsps COLD water. Stir to make it a liquid. Slowly add to soup, while stiring. If it's still not thick enough, repeat with more cornstarch and cold water. Taste soup to see if you need more seasonings.

Turn off heat, and add fresh spinach if desired. Do not let the spinach cook. Just let it wilt. Serve with chopped green onions. (and rice noodles if desired) I usually double this recipe so we can have some left over or if I'm having company.

* My kids, their spouses and my grandchildren love this soup and they ask me to make it for them.

 Update on this recipe: I fixed this soup the other day and for the first time I added a can of baby corn that you would get in the Asian section of your grocery store. We liked it.  Remember, the key to having this taste like an authentic Asian flavor is the "toasted" sesame oil.