Chicken and Sweetcorn Soup: Easy Chinese Takeaway Classic

Chicken and sweetcorn soup is a comforting, warm Chinese dish on a rainy day. It's a famous Chinese takeaway starter for time-starved people and a Chinese family dish. Because of the inexpensive ingredients and easy cooking, many Chinese households will have this on the dinner menu.

Given the simplicity of this dish, you can recreate it at home as well. Our recipe is based on what our mum used to make when she ran a Chinese takeaway business. In addition, we've catered ours to make it healthier and more suitable for home cooks.

So, our Chinese chicken and sweetcorn soup recipe is light on seasonings and booster ingredients such as chicken stock and cornflour.

Jump to:

• Ingredients
• Chicken and Sweetcorn Soup | Chinese Takeaway Recipe
• Cooking Tips
• How to make it vegetarian
• What to serve with
• Using A Slow Cooker
• Is Chicken And Sweetcorn Soup Healthy?
• Popularity
• Chinese soup variations

Ingredients

Chicken and sweetcorn soup is made of ingredients such as garlic, ginger, sweetcorn, and chicken, simmered together. Seasoned with sauces, we serve it as a warm broth. Here's exactly what you need to make this Chinese hearty soup.

• Sweetcorn
• Shredded chicken breast
• Chicken stock
• Garlic
• Ginger
• Light soy sauce
• Cornflour
• Eggs
• Sesame oil
• Spring onions (green part only)
• Vegetable oil

Chicken

Breast meat is more commonly used. As the chicken meat is boiled and shredded, you get more meat volume with breasts, and it has a softer texture when not overcooked. 

First, we need to boil the chicken breast and shred it into small pieces. To do this, submerge your chicken breast in a pot of water and then boil it. Add 1 to 2 teaspoons of salt to the water. Once boiling, lower the heat to medium. Allow it to continue simmering for 10 to 15 minutes. Depending on the size and amount of chicken, you may need to simmer for longer.

Once completely cooked, remove the chicken from the pot and place it on a cutting board to shred it. There are many methods for shredding chicken, but we like the old-fashioned method of using two forks.

You can use chicken thighs, but we would say that it is a waste. Chicken thighs are usually fattier and more flavourful when cooked as a stir-fried dish instead. If you prefer, you can season the shredded chicken with salt and pepper to add more flavour.

You can also add more eggs to add more protein. Similar to egg drop soup, you need to beat the eggs before pouring them into the soup. If you want to create nice egg flowers in the soup, forcefully stir the soup before carefully creating a stream when you pour the egg into it. You also want to make sure you lower the heat to low or medium-low when pouring the egg. 

Cornflour

The cornflour and stock thicken the dish and add flavour. Corn flour is needed to thicken the soup base. What's important to remember is to make a cornflour slurry before adding it to the soup. Adding the cornflour directly to the hot soup will clump up and not thicken it. It will make a mess of the soup and be quite the hassle to sieve out. 

To make a cornflour slurry, pour a few tablespoons of room-temperature water over the cornflour in a small bowl. Mix using a spoon until all the cornflour has dissolved. 

Avoid mixing cornflour with hot water. The hot water may cook the cornflour and cause clumping.

Chicken stock

If you're using chicken stock powder like ours, dissolve it in hot water before adding it to the soup. The general ratio is mixing 1 teaspoon of chicken stock powder in 1 cup of hot water to make 1 cup of chicken stock.

Spring Onions

For the spring onions, we will only use the green ends. Thinly slice the green part for garnishing just before serving. Save the white part for another dish.

But if you want to use the white part of the spring onion for this dish, we recommend chopping it and frying it together with the other aromatics (garlic and ginger) at the start of the recipe. Garlic and ginger help to give the chicken and sweetcorn soup a nice savoury base flavour.

Sweet corn

You can cut corn off a fresh maize cob or buy a tin can of sweet corn. We'll use canned corn, as it is more convenient and doesn't drastically change the taste.

Cooking Tips

Here are some cooking tips to make your cooking attempt at chicken and sweetcorn soup successful. 

Thicker consistency

With the meat aside, consider how thick you would like the broth to be. We recommend adding eggs or more cornflour slurry to make the soup richer.

However, if that is not enough, adding tinned creamed corn will create an intense version of the dish. With chicken or vegetable stock added, you'll achieve a much thicker chicken and corn-sweet soup.

Adding cured or roasted meat

You can add cured or roasted meat for a soothing smoky aftertaste to the dish. Chicken and sweetcorn soup is best enjoyed when the meat has been well-cooked before adding to the broth. If you are using recooked leftover meat, shred it gently with your fingers when it is no longer hot.

Adding sesame oil

Sesame oil is added at the end of the cooking process to give the soup a fragrant and nutty aroma. You can omit it if you don't like the flavour, but it's a key ingredient in many Chinese soups. We love adding it but don't add too much, as it can certainly overpower the other tastes.

Other seasonings

You can also add ginger, rice wine and dried goji berries to your chicken and sweetcorn soup. Many Chinese broths add this to get a bold, slightly bitter taste to balance out the sweetness of any vegetables.

These ingredients, with cream, can also make a heavier version of the dish. For a Thai twist on the recipe, add coconut milk, lime leaves, and lemongrass for the zesty profile of Thai food.

Brining the meat

If you have more time, you can brine the meat to make it more tender and juicy. You can submerge the meat into a solution of salt and water before cooking it. This technique will allow the meat to soak extra liquid and salt, becoming tender and juicy. 

How to make it vegetarian

If you want to make a vegetarian version of this recipe, you can swap the chicken stock for vegetable stock and replace the meat with more vegetables. 

If you prefer to have more vegetables in your soup, we recommend adding Chinese cabbage and mushrooms. Both these vegetables pair nicely with eggs. Other vegetables you can try are bok choy, broccoli, and mustard. We recommend cutting these into bite-size pieces and boiling them for longer so they're nice and soft to drink in the soup. 

What to serve with

You can add rice noodles to this easy chicken and corn soup dish to serve. Rice noodles are thinly sliced and do not overpower the dish. Otherwise, you can cook porridge to accompany this dish instead of noodles for a lighter version. 

Using A Slow Cooker

The benefit of using a slow cooker instead of a stove to cook chicken and sweetcorn soup is that you will be able to obtain more intense flavours in the dish from the ingredients, especially the meat, without adding additives. 

Since the heat is regulated and there is less evaporation, you'll be able to control the richness of the dish without having to second-guess the heat required.

Most Chinese cooks would use 8 hours to boil chicken and sweetcorn soup in a slow cooker. However, you can reduce the time by using high temperatures and boiling the dish for 4-5 hours instead. The general advice is that one hour of high temperature is equivalent to two hours of low-temperature boiling.

Is Chicken And Sweetcorn Soup Healthy?

Although this dish is served in takeaways and Chinese restaurants, most Chinese families think of it as a healthy meal. It's usually served to those who are not feeling well as it's warm, easy to chew, and easy on the stomach, too. The meat and vegetables included in the soup provide all the main nutritional components. So, for us, this easy chicken and corn soup is heart-healthy. 

To make things richer, Chinese restaurants tend to put a lot of seasonings and booster ingredients to make it feel more luxurious. Though, they're not necessarily healthier to add on such ingredients.

For our recipe, we've cut those down and included only what we think is required and healthy. This is also why our Chicken and sweetcorn soup recipe has so few calories.

Popularity

It's hard to say when the dish became popular in the West. Chinese immigrants brought the cuisine over to America in the 1920s, and apparently, it was a hit amongst home cooks. 

After World War 2, chicken and sweetcorn soup was no longer considered authentically Chinese, and different variations appeared. For example, chicken and corn soup in Pennsylvania combines poultry meat and corn kernels, flavoured with saffron and eaten with egg noodles. It was not until the 20th century, when ordering takeout became a norm, that the dish gained popularity again.

Interestingly, in the United Kingdom, Chinese restaurants expanded rapidly from the 1990s onwards. This meant that many Chinese cuisine dishes, such as salt and pepper chicken, sweet and sour chicken balls, and chicken and sweetcorn soup, quickly became known to the local populace. With the convenience of express takeout provided by these restaurants, they soon became an often ordered takeout dish and remain so today. 

In these Chinese restaurants, the meat and vegetables are in smaller pieces. Crunchy peppers, onions, and bean sprouts are used to make the dish fresh and appealing. 

Chinese soup variations

Other variations of chicken and sweetcorn soup are pork corn soup, corn cheese soup, as well as shrimp and corn soup. Some prefer to use shrimp meat or shredded imitation crab for the broth. While they are made the same way, the meat used is different.

Pork is a favourite type of meat to use for cooking amongst the Cantonese, as they use it to cook tasty sweetcorn carrot soup, commonly known as “ABC” soup. The name “ABC” is because of the vitamins A, B and C it has from the ingredients inside the broth. 

Lastly, corn cheese soup is a family favourite dish from India, and uses almost all the same ingredients like Chinese chicken and sweetcorn soup. However, they first saute the onions in the broth in butter, before adding them to the dish. Grated cheese is also thrown into the mix.

And now you’re ready to serve a piping warm bowl of chicken and sweetcorn soup, especially nourishing for those cool, rainy days. If you have enjoyed making our recipe, show off your creations and follow us on Pinterest.