This Indo-Chinese style chicken hot and sour soup is delicious! It hits the spot, totally adaptable to personal taste, and a restaurant classic! Doesn’t hurt that it’s full of nutrition!
My love for recreating restaurant-style recipes so 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 posted, similar to this soup.
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Difference between Indo-Chinese & Traditional Chinese Hot ‘n Sour Soup.
The traditional Chinese recipe uses pork, tofu, dried Shiitake mushrooms, dried lilies and other Asian ingredients and creates a strong umami and sour-flavored broth. 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 chili you want in your soup.
Ingredients and Substitutions
Here are a couple of pointers and notes about the ingredients.
- Chicken broth – I’ve added my own broth recipe for this soup. But you can use pre-made vegetable stock or chicken stock, too. The shredded chicken in this recipe comes from this broth. You can use any leftover chicken if you are using pre-made broth (or grill a breast piece separately).
- 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 from Knorr and 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.
How to make Desi Hot and Sour soup
Making the Chicken broth
As mentioned above, I make my own chicken broth for this recipe, and you are welcome to use any alternatives mentioned.
Step 1: Sear the chicken with spices and chili oil at medium heat. Let all the moisture from the chicken evaporate.
Step 2: Add water, cover with a lid, and let it simmer at low heat for 20 to 30 minutes. Strain the broth and set it aside. Discard all the whole spices and shred the chicken.
Searing the chicken first with spices and oil brings out more flavor from the chicken and gets rid of any raw smell that poultry and meat usually carry.
Making the soup
Step 3: Stir-fry the vegetables, mushrooms, and chicken at high heat in oil in a large pot.
Step 4: Add all the sauces, seasonings and the broth to the vegetables.
Step 5: Let the soup cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Adjust the seasoning and add more water if needed.
Step 6: Mix water and cornflour to make a slurry and add it to the soup for thickening. Cook for another 2 minutes to cook the cornflour.
Serving
This Desi version of the Hot n Sour soup is usually 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 that 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, keep a light hand on the seasonings as they are already heavy on it. Do a taste test at the end and then adjust accordingly.
- I didn’t add any extra salt because all the sauces and the broth carry salt with them. Only season extra after you do a taste.
Frequently Asked Questions
Cooking at home already makes your food THAT much nutritious because you’ll be using fresh, real ingredients to make it.
Here are some things to make your soup more nutritious:
1. Make the Chicken broth at home with organic or grass-fed chicken.
2. Use low-sodium Soy sauce and Natural vinegar.
3. Make your own chili garlic sauce at home with the measurements provided.
3. Use fresh vegetables and mushrooms.
4. 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.
This soup has fresh vegetables and mushrooms in it. It should be ideally consumed within 2 to 3 days. Keep any leftover soup straight away in the fridge as soon as it cools down. Use an airtight container to store the soup.
If you want to make this soup for a gathering, you can make the broth in advance and chop the vegetables and mushrooms. Just assemble on the day of the event.
You can easily throw in some boiled noodles in the leftover soup to create a spicy noodle soup or dry it out a bit to create a saucy noodle stir fry.
Since the soup has cornflour in it, it’s best heated in a pan and not the microwave. Add a splash of water to the soup and let it simmer for 2 to 3 minutes or until hot.
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!
Chicken Hot and Sour soup
Ingredients
Chicken broth (see note 1 for substitutes)
- 5 pieces bone-in chicken medium sized
- 1 teaspoon salt or to taste
- 1 teaspoon black pepper powder
- 3 whole bay leaves
- 6 cloves garlic
- 3 to 4 whole dried red chilies
- 5 cups water
- 2 tablespoon chili oil see notes
Other
- 2 tablespoon chili oil see notes
- 1/2 cup thinly sliced cabbage
- 1/2 cup shredded carrot
- 1/2 cup julienned green bell pepper
- 1/3 cup sliced mushrooms canned or fresh
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
- 4 tbsp vinegar
- 2 tbsp hot sauce
- 1/2 cup chili garlic sauce see note 2
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 4 tbsp corn starch
- 2 cup water
Instructions
Chicken Broth
- In a pot, add chili oil, chicken, and all the spices.
- Sear the chicken for 2 mins at medium high heat.
- Add water and once it starts to boil, cover the pot and let it simmer for 20 to 30 minutes.
- Remove the chicken and shred it. Strain the broth and discard all the whole spices. Set both aside.
Preparing the Soup
- In a pot, add chili oil and all the vegetables, mushrooms and shredded chicken. Saute at high heat for 3 to 4 mins.
- Reduce flame to low and add all the sauces. Mix everything together.
- Add your chicken broth and turn the flame back to medium.
- Add 4.5 cups of water and allow the soup to start simmering.
- Mix cornstarch with about 1/2 cup of water to make a smooth slurry and add it to the soup.
- Cook for another 2 3 mins and allow the cornstarch to cook through.
- Adjust seasoning and add salt if needed.
- Serve with prawn crackers, soy sauce and vinegar with sliced green chilies cut into it.
Notes
- 3/4 cup of leftover chicken, shredded
- Grill 1 chicken breast with salt, pepper, and garlic, then shred it to use.
- 3 cups of premade broth
- Any homemade broth
- 2 chicken bouillon cubes with added garlic powder.
Note 2
Substitute for Chili garlic sauce (make your own sauce):- 1/3 cup of tomato paste/ketchup
- + 2 tbsp of any red chili paste (like Sichuan sauce, sambal oelek)
- + 2 cloves of finely chopped garlic
Other notes
- I didn’t add any extra salt to the soup, because the broth and sauces carry enough salt. Only season extra after you do a taste test.
- You can use regular oil instead of chili oil.
Nisa Khan says
This turned out so good!!!!
Wajiha says
yayyyy! happy danceee
jia kitchen says
i will try your recipe Indo-Chinese Hot and Sour soup
looking yummy
Wajiha says
That would be awesome!
Anonymous says
Was a hit with my fam! Thank you ????????
Wajiha says
thats awesome!
SumC says
Hi Wajiha
I have been following you on Instagram for a while & was tempted today to make this soup. I had a small query on the quantity of water used to make the cornflour slurry. Will 2 cups not make the soup watery and increase the cooking time to get the thick consistency?
The end result was super tasty with a nice sour kick. In these times of lockdown..everyone living in cold damp weather needs to try this!
Wajiha says
hey there! thank you for being on my page. you add cornflour at the end, so it want be watery dont worry. does that answer your question?
Kanwal says
So warm and satisfying. Perfect for these wintery days!
Wajiha says
Thank you so much Komal!
Anonymous says
This is hands down the best recipe❤
Wajiha says
yayyyyyy!!!!