Have you tried Chicken and corn soup, Chinese style, before? My childhood memory evokes a nostalgic feeling whenever I make this soup. It is something that is served in nearly all Chinese restaurants that I know.

My mother used to cook this often, constituting the creamy soup directly from a can of cream corn. She only took twenty minutes to prepare it, much quicker than most Western-style creamy soups. Perhaps simplicity is why my mom made it so often, which has been the traditional soup for most Cantonese families.

I strongly suggest you try to make chicken and corn soup for your next meal. The ingredients are easy to get. You need chicken meat, eggs, sweet corn, a can of chicken broth, and some commonly available seasonings.

Cream corn in a can

Cooking chicken and corn soup using the readily available cream corn in a can like my mom’s is the easiest way.

I bet you would like to prepare something easy! Moreover, there is a wide margin of error. You will not fumble even if you make mistakes:)

This sounds good. This is a foolproof recipe, right?

Before I review my mom’s recipe, let me briefly mention two types of Chinese soup based on texture and appearance.

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How to make Chinese chicken corn soup- using canned cream corn vs. making it from scratch

There are two ways to make chicken and corn soup. If you want to whip up the soup quickly, head to the grocery shop for a can of cream corn like my mom. Alternatively, get your fresh corn and prepare it from scratch. Both are acceptable and taste fantastic. Making it from scratch is not hard as it involves only some simple ingredients. Most Asian homemakers prefer to cook it from the cream corn in a can. However, if you want to try to make the chicken and corn soup from scratch, you can follow my recipes below.

1. Cut the chicken into small cubes and marinate

Chicken and corn soup is best to make with breast meat. Some recipes suggest mincing the chicken meat, but I find that small cubes of 2 mm (brunoise) give a better texture to the soup.

Whether you like using minced meat or cutting it into cubes is your preference.  No matter which way you choose, it is important to marinate the meat.  Imagine what happens to the breast meat after boiling in the soup for a few minutes. The breast meat will become tough and tasteless.  The marinade’s cornflour and oil help tenderize the meat, while the soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, and pepper add flavor to the meat.

Note: The chicken meat will taste better if you marinate it longer, preferably overnight.

2. Prepare the soup

There are two methods to make the soup. The first method is to cook with the cream corn in a can. I am using the standard can of cream corn, which is about 400g to 420g. The second method is to use fresh corn to prepare from scratch.

a. Prepare with fresh corn

It is not difficult to prepare from scratch. Place the corn in a pot of water and bring it to a boil.  Then cover it and let it simmer for about twenty minutes.  Remove the corn from the cob using a sharp knife.

Measure 400ml of the water you used to boil the corn. Put half of it into a blender along with the corn. Blend until the corn becomes a paste, which takes about two minutes.

Pour the corn paste into a pot. Add the remaining half of the corn water plus 200ml of chicken stock. Now you have a pot of homemade cream corn broth.

b. Prepare with cream corn in the can

Empty a can of cream corn, the chicken stock, and water in a pot and bring it to a boil. I use my homemade chicken broth, but most grocery shops and supermarkets sell ready-made chicken broth. If you think you want to use water, I suggest increasing the amount of chicken meat from 75g to 120g or more to give more chicken flavor to the soup.

Note: It is more flavorful if you use a good soup base, such as chicken broth, instead of water to prepare the soup/

3. Adjust the amount of seasoning

I do not specify the amount of salt and pepper in the chicken corn soup recipe for a reason. The amount of salt and pepper depends on whether you use water or stock containing salt and pepper. The best way is to taste it after the soup has come to a boil and before adding the egg.

Note: If you want a smooth soup, do not cut the corn too close to the cob, and blend the corn for at least 2 minutes.

4. Add the marinated chicken to the broth

You need to pay more attention to this step, even though chicken and corn soup is a very forgiving recipe.

Add a large ladle of boiling soup to the chicken meat in a large bowl. Break up the small pieces of chicken meat by stirring it. The hot soup will partially cook the chicken (and the cornstarch), and eventually, they will separate into individual pieces. After that, add the partially cooked chicken meat to the pot over medium heat.

The chicken meat will stick together if you add the uncooked chicken directly into the soup. It can be quite a hassle to break it up in the pot.

Cooked the chicken meat over low heat. Vigorous boiling can toughen the chicken meat. The chicken meat should have been cooked once the soup returned to a boil. Remove from heat.

Note: Simmer the chicken slowly.  The meat will become tough if cooked over high heat or prolonged cooking.

5. Thicken the soup with cornstarch slurry

The last step to making the soup is to thicken it with cornstarch slurry.

Corn flour will form lumps when mixed with a large pot of boiling soup. The way to overcome this issue is to make a slurry by mixing 1 part of cornflour and two parts of cold water. Turn down the heat of the soup. Pour the cornflour slurry into the boiling soup slowly while stirring the soup continuously with a ladle or a pair of chopsticks. The result is a silky smooth and creamy texture.

Cornflour is the choice for thickening the soup. Ordinary cake flour will break down quickly, and the soup will soon turn watery.

You can add some heavy cream to the soup if you prefer it to be even more creamy.

Finally, beat an egg and add to the soup slowly while stirring continuously. The egg will eventually thicken the soup to the perfect texture. Garnish the creamed corn soup with some green onions.

Note: Remove the soup from the heat and pour the egg liquid into a very fine stream to produce very fine egg strips.  Keep stirring continuously in one direction.

The difference between the two types of Chinese soup

You may wonder why some Chinese soups are thick, like chowder, and some are thin, like consommé. This confusion is due to using the word ‘soup’ to describe both thick soup 羹 and thin soup 湯. These two Chinese characters represent the thickness of the soup exactly, much like the words consommé, chowder, broth, and congee in English, with a distinct appearance and meaning.

Non-Chinese may find it confusing to understand what the Chinese mean by soup. They will be dumbfounded that the bowl of soup they order looks like clear broth with only a few ingredients.

Many single-boiled and double-boiled Chinese soups may look like consommé, and you will be surprised by the complex flavor resulting from its various elements after hours of slow boiling. Thin and clear soups are also very common in other Asian countries. Tom Yam soup from Thailand and Miso soup from Japan are two typical examples of such preparation, which the Chinese terms as 湯 (pronounced as tang) thin soup.

Chinese chicken and corn soup belong to the thick soup category, called 羹. Thick soup can be as exotic as shark’s fin soup or as familiar as home-cooked egg drop soup. Chicken and corn soup is the grander version of egg drop soup, enhanced with chicken meat and sweet corn.

By now, you should know I am showing how to make the thick soup in this post, called 羹(pronounced as geng), much like a chowder or western cream soup.

You may also want to try the Hot and sour soup, which is popular in Northern China.

Chicken and corn recipe (with corn from a can)