Chicken Tinola

With watercress & summer squash

PHILIPPINES

Every culture has its version of the soul-lifting, cure-all chicken soup. The Filipinos make a version with ginger, onions and fish sauce, called tinola, which I like to base many of my chicken soups on. In fact, there are many similar soups in other Southeast Asian cultures, based on this same combination of aromatics and seasonings. I love this broth because it’s wonderfully light and the flavours are balanced and neutral enough to take on most additional ingredients. It’s traditionally served with leaves from the chilli pepper plant and wedges of green papaya. Here, especially in summer, I use peppery watercress and chunks of courgette or other mild squash.

Serves 2–3
  1. Peel and finely chop the onion, garlic and ginger. Heat the oil in a large pot over a medium heat and gently cook the onions until translucent. Add the garlic and ginger and continue sautéing until fragrant.
  2. Add the chicken, along with the fish sauce. Fry, turning, until the skin of the chicken is golden all over.
  3. Pour in enough water to cover the chicken by a couple of centimetres and bring to the boil. Cover and let simmer on a low heat until the chicken is tender, about 40 minutes.
  4. Season with salt and pepper, and extra fish sauce if you like. Add the chopped courgette and cook until tender, about 5 more minutes. If you’re using a whole chicken, remove the chicken and when cool, tear into pieces.
  5. When ready to serve, stir in the watercress, letting it wilt in the residual heat of the broth. Place some chicken in a bowl and ladle the hot broth and vegetables over. This is usually eaten with plain steamed rice, but I also like it with noodles or even little soup pasta such as macaroni.

Note: Because this is so simple and light, I tend to make this soup for myself on week-nights and have leftovers for the next day. You can easily use a regular whole chicken and multiply the rest of the ingredients by three, cooking it for 2 hours.