Rainy Day Meals: Egg Drop Soup

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Tuesday, May 17th, 2011

Recently, the weather in Northern Virginia has been dreary and according to the weather forecasts it’s not going to get any better (thunderstorms through Friday, yikes). So what better way to escape the dreary weather than with food? One of my favorite things to eat on a rainy day is egg drop soup. It is relatively easy to cook and most of the ingredients can already be found around in the kitchen so you won’t have to venture into the rain to get them.

To cook egg drop soup, I normally use the following ingredients:
- A can of chicken broth (approximately 16 ounces)
- Cornstarch
- Salt and pepper
- Scallions
- An egg
- Chinese Shaoxing Wine (optional)
- Frozen corn (optional)
- Chicken (optional)

To start, pour the chicken broth into a pot and add salt and pepper for taste. If you have Chinese Shaoxing wine, you can add it now too. Set the stove on high. In a separate container, mix one tablespoon of cornstarch with just enough water for the cornstarch to dissolve. For the egg, what I like to do is separate the yolk from the egg whites and throw the yolk away since it isn’t necessary for this recipe and it also makes the soup a tad bit healthier. In a separate bowl, beat the egg with a fork until it becomes more fluid.

When the broth is boiling, add the frozen corn and stir until it thaws. Then, gradually pour in the cornstarch mixture while stirring the broth to help thicken it up. After stirring for a minute, turn the heat down to medium and slowly pour in the egg while stirring. This will give the egg a stringy effect.

Personally, I think the soup itself isn’t really filling, so I always add chicken to the soup. In a bowl, mix cornstarch, egg white, salt, and pepper. Then put chicken in the bowl and mix it so that the chicken is thoroughly covered with the mixture. Boil the chicken in a separate pot and then add it to the finished pot of soup.

When serving, scoop the soup into a bowl and cut up some scallions for garnish. One can of broth usually makes about one to two servings. For a more detailed recipe of basic egg drop soup, you can use this one here.

However, if you don’t have time to cook, I definitely recommend Vinh Kee’s Creamy Chicken Corn Soup which is what my version was based off of.

Vinh Kee Restaurant
3103 Graham Rd
Falls Church, VA 22042
(703) 645-0118

(Image: Olli Wang/Shutterstock)
- Mai Nguyen

Tags: chicken, egg, Mai Nguyen, recipe, soup