Desi Style Chicken Soup

Chicken simmered or pressured cooked with whole garam masala spices is a flavorful and light on the tummy soup. Serve it as a starter or with rice, a comfort food on cold winter days.

Course Side Dish, Starters

Cuisine Indian

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 12

Cooling Time 10

Servings

Calories 265kcal

Author Usha Rao

Equipment

1 Kitchen Shears or use a knife
1 Knife & Cutting Board
1 Pressure Cooker (Instant Pot or stovetop)
1 Spoon (wooden or steel) or Spatula

Ingredients

1.35 lbs Chicken Thighs with bone 1.1 lbs or 500 grams after cleaning and cutting into bite size pieces
2 tablespoons Oil
5 Cardamoms
2 Cloves
¼ inch Cinnamon
½ teaspoon Caraway Seeds
2 Bay Leaves
6 Curry Leaves
½ small Onion chopped
2 tablespoons Ginger Garlic Paste
¾ teaspoon Coriander Powder
½ teaspoon Chili Powder
½ teaspoon Pepper Powder
¼ teaspoon Turmeric Powder
1 teaspoon Salt adjust to taste
3 cups Water add more if necessary
Cilantro to garnish
Lime juice when serving

Instructions

Remove the skin, cut the meat off the bone into bite size pieces and then cut the meatless bone into ½. Keep it aside.

Instant Pot Instructions

Place inner pot in Instant Pot. Select 'Sauté' mode and once the pot is hot, add oil.
In hot oil roast cardamoms, cloves, cinnamon, bay leaves, caraway seeds and curry leaves.
Then add onions and saute until soft.
Sauté ginger garlic paste for a minute, until raw ginger smell dissipates.
Add all the powders; coriander powder, chili powder, black pepper, turmeric, salt and mix well.
Then add chicken, mix until spices coat the chicken pieces and are browned.
Add water until chicken pieces are immersed in it, about 2½ - 3 cups of water.
Hit, 'Cancel' and select 'pressure cook' or 'manual' setting and cook for 3 minutes. Let pressure release naturally.
Open the lid, adjust reasoning. Check the consistency of the soup. If it is too thick, add some water, bring it to a boil and cook for a minute or two. If it is too watery, simmer for few minutes on 'Sauté' mode.
Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and serve hot as a soup or as a side dish with rice.

Stovetop Indian Pressure Cooker Instructions

Heat oil in a pressure cooker. I used a 3 liter pressure cooker but would recommend at least a 4 liter cooker.
When oil is hot, add cardamoms, cloves , cinnamon, bay leaves, caraway seeds and curry leaves.
When the spices are lightly roasted in oil, add onions and saute until soft.
Add Ginger garlic paste and saute for a minute.
Add chili powder, pepper powder, coriander powder, turmeric and salt. Mix well.
Add chicken and fry until chicken is lightly roasted and brown.
Add water and pressure cook for 3 whistles.
Turn off the heat and let the pressure release naturally.
Open the cooker, adjust the reasoning and garnish with fresh coriander leaves.
Serve as a soup or with rice as a side dish. If serving as a soup, squeeze some lime juice.

Notes

Chicken Thighs - when serving as soup, you can cut thighs into two pieces instead of small boneless meat. Once soup is done, remove bones from the soup, pull the meat off the bone and add the meat back to soup.
Chicken Wings - Wings are good substitute for thighs. Discard the wing tip, trim as much skin as possible and drop the wings in boiling water. Leave them for a minute or two until froth forms on the top. Discard the water, lightly wash the wings. Now wings are ready for soup preparation.
Tomatoes - use tomatoes instead of lime juice. Add tomatoes along with spices in step 5, cook until soft and mushy. Then follow rest of the instructions. You can also add tamarind instead of tomato and lime juices.
Variation - this won't be chicken clear soup but addition of either bottle gourd or melon cucumber is a good variation to charu, specially when serving with rice. Since these cook really quick, once the soup is done, open the lid, add the veggies, pressure cook for 0-1 minute. In Indian pressure cooker, cook until pressure builds up without the whistle.
Black Pepper - replace chili powder with black pepper. You can add 6 - 8 pepper corns in tempering and extra ½ teaspoon (total 1 tsp) of pepper powder.
Nutrition - Values mentioned are approximate.

Nutrition