Oaxacan Chicken Soup or Caldo de Fandango del Valle
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott adapted from Oaxaca by Bricia Lopez
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour 20 minutes
Note: this soup lasted us for many meals because of the rice and the soup. To make it last longer cut the chicken into six pieces or eight pieces
- 2.5 litres/10.5 cups water
- 3 tablespoons salt or chicken stock powder
- 1/2 onion
- 1 carrot, cut into inch pieces
- 1 chicken or chicken pieces (around 1.5 kgs as long as it can fit in a pot)
- 1 slice bread (I use rye, any type will do)
-
2/3 cup rice
-
3 tablespoons oil
- 1/2 onion, peeled and chopped
- 6 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- 2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 2 teaspoons ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 400g/14ozs. tin chopped tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons chilli salsa (I used Mrs Renfro's Ghost Pepper Salsa)
- Limes and avocado to serve
Step 1 - Add water to a very large pot and bring to a boil. Add salt or stock powder, 1/2 onion, carrot and chicken (I couldn't fit all of the liquid and the chicken in my pot so I set the stock aside to add in once the water evaporated). Bring to a boil and simmer with the lid on for 60 minutes. Carefully remove the chicken from the pot and set aside. Cut the chicken into pieces with sharp poultry scissors. Add the rice and place the lid back on and simmer for 20 minutes stirring occasionally to prevent the rice sticking to the bottom.
Step 2 - Take 1 cup of the broth and soak the bread in it for a minute. Then puree the bread and broth using a stick blender (do not use a regular blender if it is hot as the mixture will go everywhere). Add the puree to the soup pot.
Step 3 - In a small saucepan add the oil and then the onion and garlic and sweat down until soft. Add the oregano, cumin, black pepper and cloves and saute for another minute. Then add the tomatoes and chilli sauce and simmer for 5 minutes. Pour this into the soup pot. You can add the chicken back into the soup or just serve the soup with a piece of chicken in it. Serve with limes and avocado if you have them.