Kow Piek Sen (Chicken Soup with Pork Meatballs, Quail Eggs, and Rice Macaroni)
Kow piek sen is a great example of Laotian comfort food. This is more than just a chicken soup, my friends. Inside of the large pot I made contains pork meatballs, quail eggs, and rice macaroni with a ton of green onions and cilantro; and a ton of chicken. The soup is garnished with more green onions and cilantro, plus fried garlic. I kinda wish I made a double batch.There are a few approaches you can take when making this soup. You can use either a whole chicken or chicken pieces. I had a few bone-in chicken breasts and backs in my freezer. Do not use boneless chicken. The bones in the chicken are creating the stock. Once the chicken is cooked through, remove from the pot and pull off the meat. Place the rest of the ingredients into the pot along with the chicken. The pork meatballs are specifically Asian style. You can find them in the freezer section of every Asian market.You can find rice macaroni at just about every grocery grocery store nowadays. If you are feeding a group of people and not planning to have leftovers, you can place the dry macaroni into the pot once the chicken has been removed. Cook the macaroni until it is tender before adding the rest of the ingredients in. If you are like me and planning to have leftovers for a couple of meals, prepare the macaroni separately. Place the macaroni in the bottom of a bowl and ladle the soup over. If you don’t do this and leave the macaroni in the pot of soup for leftovers, they become mush and will ruin the soup.
Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 3 lbs whole chicken or chicken pieces
- 1 large onion diced
- 1 stalk lemongrass smashed; tied in a knot
- 10 cups water
- 1 tsp salt
- 12 oz pork meatball sliced in half
- 1 can quail eggs
- 4 green onions
- 1/2 cup cilantro chopped
- 2 tsp chili oil
- 2 tsp fish sauce
- 2 tsp light soy sauce
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 1/2 cups dry rice macaroni prepared according to package directions
Garnish
- green onions chopped
- cilantro chopped
- fried garlic
Instructions
- Place the chicken, onions, lemongrass, and salt in a pot with 10 cups of water. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 45 minutes until the chicken is cooked completely through.
- Remove the lemongrass and chicken from the pot. Let the chicken cool enough to handle. Remove the meat from the bones and chop.
- Place the chopped chicken into the pot along with the pork meatballs, quail eggs, green onion, cilantro, fish sauce, soy sauce, chili oil, and sugar. Simmer for 15 minutes.
- Season with salt to taste.
Assembly
- Place 3/4 cup of the cooked rice macaroni in the bottom of a large soup bowl.
- Ladle the soup over the rice macaroni. Garnish with green onions, cilantro, and fried garlic.
