Chinese Hot and Sour Chicken Soup

5 from 2 votes

Chinese Hot and Sour Chicken Soup is one of the most popular takeaway dishes that is almost on every Chinese restaurant's menu.

Prep Time10

Cook Time40

soaking time30

Total Time1 20

Course: Appetizer, Main Course, Soup

Cuisine: Asian, Chinese

Diet: Low Lactose

Servings: people

Calories: 438kcal

5 cups chicken stock or vegetable stock
½ TSP chili flakes or chili powder (adjust to your taste)
1 TSP salt
4 tablespoon all purpose soy sauce
1 tablespoon mirin
1 tablespoon shaoxing cooking wine (replace with same amount of mirin or sake if you don't have it)
1 teaspoon grated ginger
1 teaspoon sugar
4-6 chicken drumstick (about 1 lb / 500 g)
¾ oz dried shiitake mushroom (or 5oz/150 g sliced fresh shiitake mushroom) (20 grams soaked in 1 cup hot water for 30 minutes)
5 oz wood ear mushroom or oyster mushroom (sliced) (150 grams)
1 small carrot (chopped julienne)
1 cup soaking liquid from the dry shiitake mushroom (replace with extra chicken stock if used fresh shiitake mushroom)
2 ½ oz vermicelli pasta or rice noodles (75 grams)
4 spring onions (or 2 Chinese chives) (sliced)
2 tablespoon corn flour (make slurry with 2 tablespoon cold water)
2 medium eggs (lightly beaten)
¼ cup white wine or apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
½ teaspoon freshly ground white pepper

In a saucepan, combine the chicken stock, chili flakes or chili powder, salt, all-purpose soy sauce, mirin, Shaoxing cooking wine, grated ginger, and sugar.
Put the saucepan on medium heat and bring to a boil then add the chicken drumsticks.
Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes or until the chicken is cooked and easily falls off the bone.
When the chicken is cooked, remove it from the pan, put it on a plate, and shred it into bite-size.
Return the chicken to the pan then add sliced mushrooms, spring onions, carrot, soaking liquid from the dry shiitake mushroom, and vermicelli pasta.
Bring the saucepan to a boil and simmer gently for another 10 minutes.
Add the cornflour slurry to the saucepan and stir until the soup has thickened.
Slowly drizzle in the egg mixture in a thin stream while you stir the soup continuously to create egg ribbons. Remove the pan from the heat.
Add the sesame oil, vinegar, and freshly ground white pepper, check the seasoning and add more salt, vinegar, or chili if needed.

Gently swirl the whisked egg into the soup using a wooden spoon, avoid using a whisk!

Add the white pepper, vinegar, and sesame oil at the very end of the cooking process.

Homemade stock is the best for this soup. However, you can use a very good quality shop-bought stock if that's more convenient for you. Reduce the amount of salt if using shop-bought stock as they might contain some already.

Adjust the amount of chili, white pepper, vinegar, and soy sauce to your taste. The amounts stated in the recipe card are perfect for our taste buds, however, you might find it too strong or too weak!