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Sinigang na Manok (Chicken and Vegetables Sour Soup)

Recipe by Connie Veneracion
Use free range or stewing chicken. If you have to substitute regular chicken from the grocery, I suggest using chicken bone broth instead of plain water for making the soup.
The length of the cooking time depends largely on the kind of chicken you use. Stewing chicken will take more than an hour to cook while regular grocery chicken should be done in 30 to 40 minutes. The one hour cooking time specified below is based on how long it takes to cook a free range chicken to tenderness.
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Course Main Course, Soup
Cuisine Filipino
Servings 4 people
Sinigang na manok (chicken and vegetable sour soup)

Ingredients
  

Spice base

  • 2 tablespoons cooking oil
  • 2 shallots peeled and thinly sliced
  • 4 cloves garlic peeled and pounded
  • 2 to 3 tomatoes diced

Chicken

  • 1 kilogram chicken bone-in, whole or portions, cut into serving size pieces
  • 2 tablespoons fish sauce

Vegetables

  • 1 bunch sitaw (yard-long beans) trimmed and cut into two-inch lengths
  • 1 radish peeled and cut into rings
  • 1 bunch kangkong (water / swamp spinach) cut into two-inch lengths
  • 2 eggplants cut into rings

Seasonings

Instructions
 

  • Heat the cooking oil in a thick pan or pot.
  • Saute the shallots, garlic and tomatoes just until softened.
    Sauteeing shallots, garlic and tomatoes before adding cut-up chicken
  • Add the chicken and pour in the fish sauce.
    Adding fish sauce to chicken in pan
  • Cook, stirring often, until the chicken has lost its raw appearance and the liquids have almost dried up.
  • Pour in water (or chicken broth), four to six cups, making sure that the chicken pieces are submerged in liquid.
    Adding water to chicken in pan
  • Bring to the boil, lower the heat, cover and simmer until the chicken is tender.
  • Taste the broth and add more fish sauce, if needed.
  • Take the yard-long beans and radish and stir into the soup. Cover and simmer for about five minutes.
    Adding radish, yard-long beans and stalks of swamp spinach (kangkong) to chicken in pan
  • Taste the broth and add more fish sauce, as needed.
  • Add the kangkong stalks (the leaves go in last), stir and simmer for another five minutes.
  • Taste the broth, add more fish sauce if needed, then stir in the eggplants. Cover and simmer for five to seven minutes.
    Adding eggplant slices and water spinach leaves (kangkong) to pan
  • Check the broth again if more fish sauce is needed before stirring in the kangkong leaves. Simmer for another five minutes.
  • Pour in the tamarind extract, stir well and bring the soup to a simmer.
  • Give the broth a final taste, add fish sauce to balance the sourness of the tamarind broth, if needed, before serving your chicken sinigang.
Keyword Chicken, Chicken Soup, Vegetables