Asian food is becoming more and more popular; sushi and noodles in the very first two place all the time! Actually I didn’t feel very positive about Asian food until I visited Japan for a week last year. Possibly I couldn’t find the correct place to eat sushi, but all the noodles I ate were really scrumptious, and they inspired me to cook quail egg noodle soup.
Just like Japan itself, there is a hidden simplicity behind its complex vision. I tried a lot of kinds of noodles, but my favorite was the one made with chicken and vegetable stock. Tofu and seaweed are the most common ones, but they weren’t appealing to me. As a curious chef in my own kitchen, I decided to give it my own touch and make this Quail Egg Noodle Soup when I’m back home.
You can find hundreds of different kinds of noodles in Japan: flavored ones, instant noodle bowls, etc. I bought a very simple and plain one sold at the popular Seven Eleven Markets, so the noodle for this recipe comes from Japan. You can use any kind of noodle you fancy.
The tip behind this recipe is about how to prepare and what to include in the stock. You don’t have to make exactly the same, you can use the vegetables you like as long as they are fresh. But combination of celery, carrot and onion proved very effective for my Quail Egg Noodle Soup recipe. Tofu or red meat instead of chicken can be other alternatives.
The best thing I liked about this noodle soup were the soy sauce, quail eggs and spring onions. They gave a really Asian touch to the soup. But if you want to have bigger eggs to serve in a bigger bowl, you can try chicken eggs or make turkey egg noodle soup.
No matter when you want to have it, this Quail Egg Noodle Soup is suitable for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or when you suddenly feel hungry before you go to bed. It took me back to Japan when I had it for dinner. The next time I go, I’ll bring more noodles and chopsticks! Bon appetite or itadakimasu!
Serves 4
Quail Egg Noodle Soup. It’s time to go some Asian!
20 minPrep Time
60 minCook Time
1 hr, 20 Total Time
Save Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 pieces of boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- 6 Oz noodles of your choice
- 1 thin carrot, thinly sliced into disks
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 cup sliced mushrooms
- ½ cup sliced scallions
- 8 quail eggs
- 2 tbsp. olive oil
- Juice of 1 lime
- A few pieces of celery leaves (or any veggie you fancy)
- 1 Onion
- 3 tsp. salt
- 2 tsp soy sauce
- ¼ cup heavy cream
- 1 tsp. ground red pepper
- 1 tsp. sesame seeds
Instructions
- Boil the chicken, onion, 1 clove of garlic and celery leaves in 5 cups of water until chicken is soft enough (About 40 minutes)
- Occasionally skim any foam off the stock
- Heat olive oil oil in a stockpot
- Add one clove of garlic (thinly sliced) and carrot, stir for 2 minutes
- Add the mushroom & scallions, stir for 2 more minutes
- Add the chicken (in pieces) and 1 tsp. ground red pepper
- Cook for 5 minutes
- Boil the noodles and drain
- Add the stock to a stockpot
- Put in the cream, lemon juice, soy sauce and salt
- After it starts boiling, add the noodles
- Cook for a few minutes
- Put one quail egg into each bowl and add the mixture evenly to the bowls(not very big ones)
- Halve one more quail egg over the noodles in each bowl
- Dress with sliced scallions and sesame seeds.
[…] Quail Egg Noodle Soup […]