This is one of my all time favorite chicken soup that my mom makes for the family, Kua Laam. It is a thick chicken soup that is spiced up with lots of herbs and eaten with sticky rice. It is said that since this soup is so fragrant and flavorful, it takes a lot of rice to finish up the liquid in the soup. A little goes a long way.
It’s a classic in my grandparents house. It’s so flavorful and comforting. What make this dish great is by using Hmong chicken but any kind of chicken will work great as well. There is a lot of herbs in this soup which makes this soup smells so good and taste so comforting. But what I love the most about this dish is dipping sticky rice in the soup since the soup is thicken up with soaked sticky rice that has been grounded up. It’s great to eat when it’s cold outside or when you’re feeling under the weather. This soup dates back to my grandparents teaching my mom how to make it and now she’s teaching me and now I’m sharing it with you all. I hope you all enjoy!
Main Ingredients
Herbs: Green garlic or garlic cloves works too, lemongrass, culantro, chili pepper, shallots, green onion, cilantro, holy basil, and Thai basil.
We used green garlic (with the green leafs on) since it adds a great and subtle flavor to the soup. Feel free to use fresh garlic cloves if you can’t find green garlic with leafs. We love garlic in this soup. My mom says the more garlic in here the more flavorful it’ll be. But it’s up to you!
Meat: Hmong Chicken or any whole chicken from the Asian market. Feel free to use free range chicken from any market. It may not be as rich as using fresh whole Hmong chicken or whole chickens from the Asian market, but it’ll taste just as great.
Cut the whole chicken. Cut the thigh, breast and any other meats into smaller pieces with the skin still on. Also keep the bones for flavorful broth!
Soaked short grain sticky rice blended up in water is the key thickener for this soup!
Look at how thick and herby the soup is!
Serve a bowl or two
Eat with sticky rice… or in this case, Purple sticky rice!
YUM!
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken
- 1/2 cup short grain sticky rice soaked in 1 1/3 cups of water
- 1.5 liters of water (~6.5 cups water)
- 1 tbsp salt (or more after tasting)
- 1 tsp chicken bouillon seasoning or mushroom seasoning (Po Lo Ku Mushroom Seasoning brand)
- 2 green garlic (or 4 garlic cloves)
- 1 lemon grass
- 2 chili pepper (more or less)
- 1/2 cups rough chopped shallot
- 3/4 cups cilantro (more or less)
- 5 green onions
- 1/3 cups holy basil
- 1/3 cups Thai basil
- 1/3 cups culantro (more or less)
Instructions
1) Soak the 1/2 cups of short grain sticky rice in about 1 1/3 cups of hot tap water. Let it soak for at least 30 minutes to 45 minutes.
2) Cut the whole chicken. Cut the thigh meat, breast and drum meat into smaller pieces. Cut the bones into smaller pieces if you can as well. Set aside.
3) Bring 1.5 liters of water into a simmer. Add salt and chicken bouillon or mushroom seasoning. Add in the chicken meat and bones. Boil for about 25-30 minutes or until cooked.
4) While the chicken is cooking, go ahead and cut the herbs and spices. Slice the lemongrass into super thin cuts. Slice the chili peppers in half. Cut the green garlic, cilantro, green onions, culantro, holy basil, Thai basil, and shallots into small bite size pieces. It won't matter how big you cut it since it will cook down once it's added to the hot soup.
5) Once the rice has been soaked for about 30-45 minutes, add the rice with the liquid into a blender and blend until it's somewhat smooth. It's okay if it's still slightly chunky.
6) After 30 minutes or so of cooking the chicken, add in the green garlic or garlic. Cook for 5 minutes.
7) Then add in the slice lemongrass, shallots, and chili pepper. Stir.
8) Then add in the blended up rice mixture. Stir and cook for 5 minutes or so OR until the soup has thicken. Turn off heat once thicken.
9) Then add in all the other herbs. Taste and adjust.
10) Serve with sticky rice or just eat a bowl of it as it is! Enjoy!
-Cindy (CHawjCreations)
Notes
Feel free to add as much or as little herbs as you like if you're a little sensitive to some of them. It's up to you. We use a lot since we love our herbs! Feel free to take the bones out before adding the all the herbs and rice in.
