Chicken dumplings in broth, with noodles and chilli oil

Main Soup

Serves 4

Prep 20 min

Cook 40 min

This dish falls somewhere between matzo ball soup and a bowl of Pho, staying true to neither. There are quite a few different elements, making it a fun meal to share with friends; adding herbs and chilli oil as you go, to create an ever-evolving bowl of soup. You can get ahead by making the broth and the raw dumpling mixture the night before. We love to make chilli oil, but if you want to save time, you can use shop-bought ones too.

Ingredients

3	chicken thighs (350g), skin-on, bone-in
30g	ginger, peeled, 10g grated and 20g sliced
4	cloves garlic, peeled, 1 minced, 3 whole
100g	spring onions, 70g cut into 1 inch pieces, 30g thinly sliced at an angle
25g	coriander, stalks and leaves separated
5g	dill leaves
⅛ tsp	ground white pepper
¼ tsp	baking powder
1	egg
1 tsp	soy sauce
30g	matzo meal
½ tsp	black peppercorns
5 tsp	fish sauce
100g	white cabbage, thinly sliced
100g	dried vermicelli rice noodles
10g	mint leaves, roughly torn
50g	crispy chilli oil (we like Lao Gan Ma brand)
	fine sea salt

Method

First skin the chicken, then using a knife, cut down either side of the bone, leaving 1 cm flesh attached to either side of the bone to flavour the stock. Reserve the meat, bones and skin. Next place the skins and any white fat in a small saute pan on a medium-low heat with 4 tbsp water to render the fat for 5-8 minutes, until the skins are crispy and at least 2 tsp of fat has rendered out. Then strain the skins through a sieve set over a bowl, reserving both the fat (smalz) and skins.
Meanwhile, to make the dumplings, cut the reserved chicken meat into 1 inch pieces and place in a food processor along with the grated ginger, minced garlic, 20 grams (of the 70 gram inch sized) spring onions pieces, 10 grams coriander leaves, all the dill, white pepper and baking powder to the food processor and coarsely blend to combine, stopping just before it forms a smooth paste. Next add the egg, 75 millilitres of water, soy sauce, matzo meal and the reserved chicken fat and pulse just to combine. Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate for an hour to firm up.
Next, to make the broth, put the chicken bones and the crisped up chicken skins into a medium saute pan. Add the garlic cloves, 20 grams sliced ginger, remaining 50 grams of spring onion pieces, all the coriander stalks, black peppercorns and 2 litres of water and place on a medium heat. Bring to a simmer, then turn the heat down to medium-low and cook for 1 hour making sure not to boil the broth. Season with 5 teaspoons fish sauce and taste.
Use wet hands to shape the dumpling mixture into 12 x 30 gram balls.
Strain the broth, discarding the solids, and add the liquid back into the pan. Bring to a simmer and add the dumplings. Cook on a medium heat for 15 minutes until the balls are cooked through and have expanded.
Arrange the cabbage, the remaining coriander, and mint in separate piles on a plate.
To cook the rice noodles, put them in a large heat-proof bowl, cover with 800 millilitres boiling water and leave for 8 minutes. Strain through a sieve set over your sink, discarding the water, and evenly divide the noodles between 4 bowls. Divide the hot broth and dumplings evenly between the bowls of noodles. Place the sliced spring onions on top and serve with the plate of herbs and chilli oil on the side, allowing each person to assemble their bowls as they please.