Chicken and Cilantro Soup

I love El Pollo Inka. It's Peruvian restaurant in LA (there are four locations) and has been a favorite of both Monkey and myself since high school. If you go at lunch, they give you a bowl of the most delicious chicken and rice soup to accompany your meal. Luckily this recipe has been posted on their website (thank you Monkey for finding it).

On Sunday, I finally got around to making it, using the homemade chicken stock I made last week. YUM. Exactly as it is in the restaurant and oh so easy to make. For added convenience, I used frozen veggies instead of cutting up my own green beans, corn, and carrots, as I suspect the restaurant probably does as well. With extra lime juice, this soup is ridiculously addicting. I ate a huge bowl yesterday, another huge bowl for lunch, and will be eating another bowl tomorrow.


Peruvian Aguadito de Pollo (Chicken and Cilantro Soup)
Yields: 6-8 servings

1 whole chicken (2lbs) cut into 8 pieces
2 medium peeled potatoes, diced (6 pieces each)
6 T rice, washed and strained
1 celery stalk
1 T fresh chopped garlic
1 T salt or to taste
8 C water
1 bunch cilantro blended in a 1/2 cup of water
1/4 C green beans - cut into 1 inch pieces
1 carrot - cut into small dices
1/4 C corn kernels
1/4 C green peas,
2 limes cut into 4 pieces

Place water with chicken, potatoes, rice, celery and garlic into a medium pot and bring to boil over heat; once boiling, reduce to medium heat for 20-30 minutes (or until chicken is tender) occasionally stirring.

Add the cilantro mixture, green beans, carrot, corn and green peas.
Remove the celery stalk and chicken. Discard the celery. Separate the chicken from the bones and shred into chunks. Place back into the pot.

Let simmer for 5 more minutes and add salt to taste.
Serve hot with a piece of lime on the side to be squirted when eaten.