chicken pepper soup
Ingredients
1 whole chicken, quartered -- include giblets except liver
1 onion, chopped
2 bouillon cubes (I like Maggi brand)
1 tablespoon pepper soup spice
1 teaspoon dried thyme (or 3-4 sprigs fresh thyme)
1-2 habanero peppers, diced
1 bay leaf
5-8 Thai basil leaves (can skip or substitute Italian basil, parsley, or other leafy herb)
2 teaspoon salt (start at 1 tsp and add salt to taste)
1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper or cayenne
9 cups water (enough to cover chicken in pot)
Instructions
Add all ingredients to a large stock pot.
Bring to boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cook until chicken is tender and almost falling off the bone (about 50 minutes), stirring occasionally.
Remove pot from heat so it can begin to cool.
Remove chicken from pot. Separate meat from skin and bones. Pull meat into small pieces.
After you are done with the chicken, the soup should have cooled slightly and you will see a layer of fat on the surface of the soup. Skim the fat off with a spoon and discard.
Add chicken back into pot along with Thai basil. Give it a good stir.
Turn on heat and bring back to just a simmer for 5 minutes. Serve on its own, or with rice or African yam.
About this recipe
When I was growing up, pepper soup was always prepared for special occasions. It's a broth-based soup that is popular in Nigeria and its main characteristic being spicy, as is self-evident from the name. The traditional pepper soup meats are beef, goat meat, and tripe (my personal favorite). I wanted to see if I could make a pepper soup with chicken that would warm my soul and remind me of home without compromising on flavor. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out!
I’d consider this recipe medium spicy—about halfway between a mildly spiced fast food chicken sandwich and the burn-your-face-off spicy curry vindaloo you'd get at an authentic Indian hole in the wall. Obviously you can adjust the heat level to your taste.
This recipe is the first time I ever cooked with a whole chicken! I *mostly* followed these instructions to cut it up. If you are as intimidated as I was, the good news is it doesn't matter if the chicken is pretty for this recipe, it just needs to fit in the pot. You could even stick the chicken in whole (I don't have a pot big enough to try that!). You also can just start with pre-cut chicken from the store—I'd stick with bone-in, skin-on dark meat for maximum flavor.
The one specialty ingredient on here is "pepper soup spice." If you live in a big city or near a large West African population, you can probably find an international grocery store that sells it. You can also buy it online. But trust me when I say the soup will be fine without it! When I was growing up my mom didn't have access to a lot of the traditional Nigerian spices she grew up cooking with, but she made do with what she could find. If you omit the pepper soup spice, try adding more thyme, or sprinkling in some dried basil or ground allspice. Make this soup your own!
