Egg Drop Soup

One of my favorite dishes at Chinese restaurants has always been egg drop soup. Especially with some Crab Rangoons, it’s one of the better appetizers in the good industry, at least in my opinion. But, most home chefs don’t bother trying to make it themselves.

Today, I’m going to walk you through making egg drop soup that stands up well even to restaurant quality, and you’ll see that it’s pretty simple. First, we’ll start with ingredients, then walk through the process, and I’ll wrap up with some recommendations on serving and presentation.

As far as ingredients go, you’ll need:
3 cups chicken stock
1 egg
1tablespoon corn starch
1 teaspoon sesame oil


To start, get the chicken stock heating up. I make mine from scratch, and I make it fairly salty. It does turn out a little better with homemade stock: premade stock works fine as well, but if it comes unsalted, you’re going to want to salt it to taste.

As the stock is heating up to a boil, you’ll need to do two things. First, take the cornstarch in a little bowl and add about 2 tablespoons of water. The important thing is to whisk it with a fork until you get a slurry with no clumps. From there, stir it in little by little into the heating stock. It will look cloudy now, but once it all comes together shortly, the corn starch will give the soup that nice, thick texture you’re looking for.

Now, take your egg, or, if you have smaller eggs, two or three eggs, and whisk them well in a separate bowl. Once the stock is boiling, pour the eggs in while continuously stirring. It’s important to pace this relatively slowly, as you’ll want to keep the stock boiling so it can instantly cook the eggs into those ribbons you’re looking for.

Finally, stir in the sesame oil: it adds a little richness to the overall taste.

You’ll notice that the soup comes out much more pale than the stuff you’re used to at restaurants. That’s because they use a good bit of yellow food coloring. You can as well, but it’s not at all necessary for the flavor.

As far as garnishes go, I like to chop a little bit of green onion to float on top. Additionally, if you have a good Chinese or Asian grocery nearby, they’ll probably have those little fried sticks that often come with restaurant egg drop soup.

This soup does pretty well in the fridge as well, and you can save it for up to about a week.

As you can see, there’s not much to making good egg drop soup at home. In fact, other than the boiling, I bet when you try it, it will take less time than it took you to read this. Once you’ve made it at home, you’ll likely add it to your frequent dinner rotation, as it’s a quick, cheap, and great meal to make, especially as we head towards fall and the weather starts to cool down a little. bit.
About author
G
Garrett is a writer and commentator based in the South. His areas of expertise lie in cooking, fashion, and the outdoors among others. He has been writing and educating professionally for years, and enjoys creating online discourses around positively masculine spaces.

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