Mulligatawny Soup
Mulligatawny soup is a rich, wholesome chicken soup with a surprisingly deep, warming curry flavor. It’s a flavorbomb of a soup that puts the average chicken soup to shame.
Ingredients
- ½ cup rice
- 1 tbsp ghee
- 1 onion
- 2 carrots
- 2 stalks celery
- 4 cloves garlic
- 2 tsp ginger, minced (about thumb sized nub of fresh ginger)
- 3 chicken breasts
- 5 cups chicken stock
- 2.5 tbsp curry powder
- 1 tbsp garam masala powder
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- ⅛ tsp cinnamon optional
- ⅛ tsp nutmeg optional
- ⅛ tsp thyme
- 1 tart green apple
- ⅓ cup heavy cream
Instructions
- Start by soaking the rice. Just pour water over a bowl of rice and let it sit. This will allow the rice to cook more evenly and quickly.
- Heat a tablespoon of ghee in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion, celery, carrots, garlic, and ginger. Sweat for about 5 minutes until softened.
- Add salt, pepper, curry powder to the vegetables and mix to coat. It's optional but highly recommended to also add garam masala, thyme, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
- Add the chicken, bay leaves and chicken stock.
- Bring to a boil then lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.Remove the chicken and set aside to cool.
- Drain the soaked rice and wash until the water runs clear. Add the rice and apples to the pot.Cover and cook for another 15 minutes, until the rice is cooked through.
- While the rice and apples are cooking, shred or slice the chicken into thin, bite-sized pieces once cooled.
- When rice and apples are done cooking, add the cream and stir it in. Add the chicken and you’re done!
Notes
Don't have ghee? If you don't have or don't want to use ghee, you can use any vegetable oil. Or a 50/50 combination of butter and oil. You can also use schmaltz if you have it or if you're using homemade chicken stock, feel free to use the fat that hardens at the top.
Vegetable substitutions. Feel free to use any variety of onion - red, white, yellow, brown - or even shallots. Carrots and celery are fairly standard but you can also add in tomatoes, potatoes, and/or turnips.
Do you have to use rice? I like basmati rice in mulligatawny but you can absolutely substitute lentils. Just keep in mind that while lentils don't need to be soaked, pre-soaking them for a couple of hours helps digestion.
Also, cooking times will vary depending on the variety. Red or yellow lentils cook just as quick as basmati rice (just 15 minutes) while other varieties like green or brown lentils can take double that time.
Substitutions for apples? A tart, green apple provides just the perfect amount of sweetness. But if you don't want apples in your mulligatawny soup, use potatoes or turnips instead.
Substitutions for cream. I love a bit of heavy cream (double cream if you’re in the UK) to counteract the spice and give the soup a rich creaminess. If you want to skip the cream, you can substitute it with a 1/2 cup of full-fat coconut milk. Or whisk together 1/2 cup of the chicken stock with 1 tbsp flour, mix well to get the lumps out, and then stir it into the soup to cook and thicken.
Want other variations of mulligatawny soup? If you like beef and tomatoes, try the Heinz mulligatawny soup recipe. If you'd be open to the taste of nuts and roasted peppers, try The Soup Nazi's mulligatawny soup recipe.