Chicken Hot and Sour soup

This Indo-Chinese style chicken hot and sour soup is delicious! It hits the spot, totally adaptable to personal taste, and is a restaurant classic! Doesn’t hurt that it’s full of nutrition!

My love for recreating restaurant-style recipes is REAL! I can control the ingredients and lighten them up as I like. The Nando’s Peri Peri chicken livers and Karachi’s famous Chicken Tikka Samosas are two such recipes I’ve adapted to be lighter and still delicious.

Jump to:

• Difference between Indo-Chinese & Traditional Chinese Hot ‘n Sour Soup.
• Ingredients and Substitutions
• How to make Desi Hot and Sour soup
• Serving
• Expert Tips
• Modify Soup for Clean-Eating
• Frequently Asked Questions
• More Indo-Chinese recipes
• Chicken Hot and Sour soup

Difference between Indo-Chinese & Traditional Chinese Hot ‘n Sour Soup.

The traditional Chinese recipe features pork, tofu, dried Shiitake mushrooms, dried lilies, and other Asian ingredients, resulting in a rich, umami-flavored broth with a sour undertone. This is the soup you get when you order from any Chinese restaurant outside of South Asia.

The Indo-Chinese, aka Desi-style, hot and sour soup has a tomatoey and chili-based broth. It has a characteristic vibrant red color that sets it apart from all the other soups of the region. One of the popular street-style foods available in India and Pakistan. It is served with a special spiced vinegar that has green chilies cut in it! But don’t worry, you can totally control how much heat you want in your soup.

Ingredients and Substitutions

Here are a couple of pointers and notes about the ingredients.

• Chicken broth – I’ve used my own broth recipe for this soup. But you can use pre-made vegetable stock or chicken stock, too.
• Shredded Chicken – The shredded chicken in this recipe comes from my broth, too. You can use any leftover chicken if you are using pre-made broth (or boil a chicken breast separately in salt and garlic powder).
• Chili oil – This is a Chinese condiment that adds a subtle layer of heat to the dish. I make my own chili oil at home, which I use. You can use any store-bought ones, too, or use regular oil instead.
• Chili garlic sauce – This is one of the main ingredients; it gives the soup its color, flavor, and heat. Chili garlic sauce is a type of ketchup that has tomato paste, garlic, and chili in it. The one I use is either homemade or from Knorr, easily available in South Asian stores. You can also make your own (see notes).
• Vegetables & Mushrooms – The standard veggies used in this dish are bell peppers, cabbage, and carrots. But this is your soup! Feel free to use any mushrooms and veggies you like to eat.
• Condiments – The soup uses all the basic condiments like vinegar, hot sauce, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and brown sugar.
• Thickener – Cornflour or Cornstarch is used to make this soup thick.

See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities

How to make Desi Hot and Sour soup

Here’s a simple pictorial for you to make this soup easily.

NOTE: Sweating and sauteing the vegetables gives you crunchier veggies and a longer shelf life.

Serving

I like to garnish my soup with spring onions, but that is totally optional. This Desi version of the Hot n Sour soup is served with vinegar spiced with sliced green chilies, prawn crackers, and some soy sauce on the side.

You can serve it with some spicy Chicken Shashlik skewers to make a full meal!

Expert Tips

• Stir-frying the vegetables and mushrooms removes all the water they carry. It also kills microbes in the produce. It adds more flavor to the dish and helps increase the shelf life of the soup.
• If you are using store-bought chicken or vegetable stock, don’t add salt till you do a taste test, as store-bought stocks are generally high in sodium.
• I didn’t add any extra salt because all the sauces and the broth carry salt with them. Only season extra after tasting.

Modify Soup for Clean-Eating

Cooking at home already makes your food THAT much more nutritious because you’ll be using fresh, real ingredients to make it.

Here are some things to make your soup even more nutritious:

• Make the Chicken broth at home with organic or grass-fed chicken.
• Use low-sodium Soy sauce and Natural vinegar.
• Make your own chili garlic sauce with the measurements provided.
• Use fresh vegetables and mushrooms.
• You can use oats instead of cornflour as a thickener for your soup. Grind some oats to make powder and add 1 tsp to your soup. Let the oats cook for 10 mins, and you will have a nice, thick soup. Add more if needed.

Frequently Asked Questions

More Indo-Chinese recipes

Here are some top-notch recipes that I think you will love:

Do you have any questions? I’m happy to help! And of course, If you try this recipe, I’d loveeeee to see it or simply hear about it! Hit me up in the comment section below and I’ll get back to asap! Happy Cooking!