Welcome to The Storied Recipe! I host a unique podcast where every guest gives me a recipe that’s significant to their culture, life, and memories. I make, photograph, and share the recipe with you. I invite you to listen to Ashley and her mother Precious's story as you make their Jamaican Chicken Soup recipe.
Ashley and her mother, Precious, shared this recipe with us, along with memories of 4 different generations of women making the soup in a cozy Brownstone house in New York City.
Precious began cooking for her siblings before she was a teenager. After she left Jamaica at 14, she cooked for 10 people every day in her new home. This soup was a staple and made Precious feel as if a piece of Jamaica had been transplanted into the middle of the city.
As Precious raised Ashley, Ashley's grandmother and great-grandmother were often in the home, along with aunts, and uncles, and cousins. Ashley remembers the sound of the pumpkin-thickened broth boiling and bubbling in the background as she slid down the banister with her cousins.
According to Precious, this is the soup Jamaican's serve to to the sick. And it certainly must be one of the most nourishing dishes imaginable! We all know about the healing properties of bone broth. In addition, this soup serves up vitamin-rich vegetables like pumpkin, chayote squash, potatoes, turnips, and carrots.
The dumplings are a rich, tasty addition, and although I can't claim to have made them properly (despite Ashley's advice and watching several YouTube videos), it didn't matter - everyone still fished them out to eat them first!
The one point I must reiterate from Ashely and Precious: If you use the Scotch Bonnet or Habanero pepper, take it out as *soon* as it begins to soften. I left mine in too long and the result was way too spicy for some of us!! My mistake - they warned me! It was no problem; I froze individual servings for the two members of my family that love spicy dishes. So, never fear: every last drop will be eaten by grateful, hungry people! 😉
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Ep. 070 - Jamaican Chicken Soup
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Jamaican Chicken Soup
12
servings30
minutes45
minutes1
hour15
minutesThis authentic Jamaican Chicken Soup recipe is a broth thickened with pumpkin and featuring cornmeal dumplings and other nutritious root vegetables.
Keep the screen of your device on
Ingredients
- Soup Ingredients
1 1 whole chicken broken down (8-10 pieces) - Substitution: chicken legs and thighs (bone-in/skin on – 8-10 pieces)
½ ½ a small pumpkin, peeled and diced - Substitution: Diced butternut squash or 1 can of pumpkin puree (15 oz)
1 1 onion, diced
4-5 4-5 carrots, peeled and sliced (thick slices)
1 1 cho cho (also known as chayote squash), peeled and diced - Substitution: Diced turnips;½ cup diced turnips
4 4 fresh corn on the cob, each cob cut or broken into 2-3 pieces - Frozen corn kernels if fresh isn’t available (Only add 5 minutes before soup is done if using frozen)
4-5 potatoes 4-5 (golden work best), peeled and diced
10-15 sprigs 10-15 of thyme
3 3 scallions
1 1 scotch bonnet pepper - Substitution: 1 habanero pepper or habanero hot sauce to taste
1 packet 1 Jamaican cock soup mix - Substitution: 2 cubes chicken bouillon
Salt and black pepper to taste
2 tbs 2 oil (any flavorless oil- sunflower oil, canola oil, etc.)
- Cornmeal Dumplings
1 cup 1 white flour
⅓ cup ⅓ cornmeal
2 large 2 pinches of salt
Directions
- Make the dumplings: In a large bowl mix flour, cornmeal and salt. Add warm water in a slow stream while mixing with your hands until it just comes together. Roll into a dough ball and knead until mostly smooth. Divide the dough into equal sized balls and set aside.
- Place chicken pieces in a bowl, season with salt and pepper to taste and toss.
- Put a large soup pot on the stovetop and heat to medium high heat. Add oil and onions. Cook onions 1-2 minutes until translucent.
- Add chicken, skin side down, to the onions and cook 3-5 minutes to cook the skin but not brown it.
- Add pumpkin, thyme, scotch bonnet (whole pepper), scallions (whole), soup mix, salt and pepper to the pot, fill the pot with water ¾ of the way full. Reduce heat to medium, cover and cook for 5 minutes.
- Roll the dumplings into circles, form a fist with your hand, and do a rolling motion so that it is a flattened circle (~½ inch thick) with a slight well in the center. Stir the pot, slightly mash pumpkin and add dumplings one at a time.
- Stir so that they don’t stick together. Cover and cook for 8 – 10 minutes.
- Keep an eye on the Scotch Bonnet or Habanero peppers. You do not want them to burst because the soup will be too spicy for some people. (As Precious says, “It will turn into Pepper Pot Soup”, another dish entirely.)
- Add potatoes, cho cho, corn and turnips, cover and cook for 10 minutes.;;Add carrots to the pot cover and cook for 5-10 minutes, until knife tender.
- Stir the soup, lightly mash remaining pumpkin and some potato to thicken the soup.
- If chicken is cooked, turn off the heat. If not, cook just a little longer. You do want the chicken to be cooked and slightly falling off the bone, but you do not want the potatoes and carrots to be mushy. It is not necessary to remove the skin.
- Remove the scallion, scotch bonnet and thyme.
- Enjoy a comforting bowl of soup!
Notes
- Make sure to listen to Lexi & Beth on The Storied Recipe Podcast, “We Learned To Trust Each Other” Mother-Daughter Team Lexi & Beth of Crowded Kitchen on the Joys, Struggles, and Lessons of Working with Family while you make their Jamaican Chicken Soup recipe!
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Wonderful cook says
Absolutely delicious! My whole family loved this chicken soup. It will definitely be in my regular rotation.
admin says
Oh, I'm so thrilled to hear this!! We loved it also and I'm so grateful to Ashley and her mom for sharing this amazing cherished recipe from their home! Thanks for taking the time to comment - it means a lot!