Trotsky's clear chicken noodle broth
Ginger and lemongrass for flavour, gone before the bowl is filled
Doubles in a larger pan for four. Keep the strained broth and the noodles apart in the fridge for up to two days if you are making it ahead, and bring them together only when you reheat.
A broth this clear only stays that way if you are ruthless about what comes out of the pot again. Ginger and a bruised stalk of lemongrass go in whole, simmer long enough to leave their flavour behind, and then every last piece is lifted out and thrown away before the noodles or the chicken go anywhere near the bowl. Rice noodles cooked properly soft and shredded chicken poached in the same pot do the rest, with fish sauce and a little sugar the only seasoning. No chilli, no beansprouts, no wedge of lime balanced on the rim. What is left is a broth you can actually see the bottom of the bowl through, and trust completely.
From the chronicle · Coyoacán, 1956
In 1956 I rented a room a few streets from Avenida Viena, and the cook at the house Natalia had kept exactly as it was fed me on the days the photographs did not sell. Nothing had changed since 1940. The desk was as he left it and the rabbit hutches still stood in the yard, empty. The cook remembered a man who worked until the small hours, took his temperature more often than most men wind a watch, and had a stomach that punished him for every argument he won. Anything with a shred in it came straight back. So the broth went through the sieve twice and then through a muslin, and what reached the bowl was clear enough to read the paper through, which he sometimes did. Everything that had flavoured it was out of the pot by then. My version borrows her straining and nothing else. She would not have known what to do with a stalk of lemongrass, and he would have wanted to know its history before he let it in.
The people, places and dates are real. The meal and the conversation are not. Read more about the chronicle.
Ingredients
Contains: Fish, Celery
- 900 mlclear chicken stock, strained clear, or a good stock cubePreparation matters
Stock (chicken, beef, vegetable, dashi): Preparation matters
Why the preparation matters. Keep it clear and strained, with no vegetable pieces.
Sources: East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, Department of Nutrition & Dietetics
More about stock (chicken, beef, vegetable, dashi) - 2chicken thigh fillets, skin removed
- 4 sliceginger, peeled, sliced, infused in the pot and lifted out before servingHospitals differ
Ginger (infused and removed): Hospitals differ
Why the preparation matters. Slice it and simmer it to flavour the liquid, then remove every piece. It is never eaten.
Where hospitals differ. Ginger is a spice, and the leaflet this book follows lists spices under avoid. Infusing it and removing every piece leaves flavour behind without any residue.
If your team says no. Leave it out, or simmer a strip of lemon zest, lifted out before serving, for a cleaner note.
Sources: East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, Department of Nutrition & Dietetics, St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
More about ginger (infused and removed) - 1lemongrass stalk, bruised and infused in the pot, then lifted out and discardedHospitals differ
Lemongrass (infused and removed): Hospitals differ
Why the preparation matters. Bruise the stalk and simmer it to flavour the liquid, then lift it out whole. Never chop it, and never eat it.
Where hospitals differ. No leaflet names lemongrass. It is treated like an infused herb, which the stricter leaflets restrict when chopped.
If your team says no. Leave it out. The broth loses a little of its warmth and nothing else.
Sources: East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, Department of Nutrition & Dietetics, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
More about lemongrass (infused and removed) - 1 tbspfish sauce
- 1 tspsugar
- 160 grice noodles, dried, cooked soft according to the packet, then drained
Method
Put the stock, chicken, ginger and lemongrass in a large pan. Bring to a bare simmer and poach the chicken gently for 15 to 18 minutes, until cooked through with no pink left.
Lift the chicken out onto a plate. Leave the stock at a low simmer for a further 10 minutes so the ginger and lemongrass have time to give up their flavour.
Once the chicken is cool enough to handle, shred it into small pieces with two forks, discarding any fat.
Strain the stock through a fine sieve into a clean pan, discarding the ginger, the lemongrass and anything else caught in the sieve. Stir in the fish sauce and sugar and bring back to a simmer.
Meanwhile, cook the rice noodles in a separate pan of boiling water according to the packet, until soft with no firm centre, then drain.
Divide the noodles and shredded chicken between two warm bowls and ladle the hot broth over the top.
Watch-points
- Use a clear stock, strained if home-made, with nothing floating in it.
- Simmer the ginger slices in the stock for flavour, then lift out and discard every piece before the broth is strained. None of it should reach the bowl.
- The lemongrass stalk works the same way as any other infused herbs and aromatics here: bruised for flavour, then fished out and thrown away before straining.
- Strain the finished stock through a fine sieve before the noodles or chicken go back in, so nothing fibrous is left in the liquid.
- Leave out fresh herbs, beansprouts, chilli and any wedge of lime. None of them are part of this version.
Some hospitals allow whole slices of fresh ginger simmered into a broth and then removed; the leaflet this book follows does not. Leave it out if you have been told to.
Some hospitals allow a bruised lemongrass stalk simmered for flavour and lifted out before serving; the leaflet this book follows treats fresh aromatics the same way as fresh herbs, which it lists among the foods to avoid. Leave it out if you have been told to.
Make it more nourishing
- Stir a 15 g knob of butter through the noodles before the broth goes in. It melts through and adds richness without changing the flavour.
- Use 3 chicken thigh fillets instead of 2 for a heartier bowl with more protein.
- Slip an egg into the simmering broth and poach it for 4 minutes, until the white is set and the yolk is firm, then lift it into the bowl. About 6 g of extra protein.
Swaps
- Instead of rice noodles, use broken vermicelli or thin flat rice noodles
- any rice noodle behaves the same once soft
- Instead of fish sauce, use a little extra soy sauce and a pinch of sugar
- milder, though the flavour shifts
The foods in this recipe
Each of these has a page of its own, with how to prepare it and where hospitals differ.