Chicken Mulligatawny: An Easy Soup Recipe

Mulligatawny is a popular spiced soup that originates in India. Traditionally, it was a peasant dish made using cheap ingredients, such as rice, spices, vegetables and lentils. However, there are also meat variations of the soup, including chicken mulligatawny.

Vegetable mulligatawny and lentil mulligatawny are the most common variants, and lamb mulligatawny is also a popular choice. The chicken variation is a fantastic way to use up leftover chicken from a Sunday roast dinner, which is a budget-friendly way to cook and use up leftovers.

You can also cook some fresh chicken to make the soup, either by roasting a whole chicken and shredding the meat or by cooking chicken breasts in the oven, which Café Delites says takes approximately 20 minutes, before adding to the soup.

The rest of the ingredients for this Indian soup are things you will probably have in your store cupboard and refrigerator at home. If you do not have one of the vegetables, you can replace it with something else you have or just omit it from the recipe. You can also adapt the spice levels to suit your tastes. Here is how to make an easy chicken mulligatawny soup recipe.

Useful Information

Ingredients for Chicken Mulligatawny Soup Recipe

• 1 lb/ 450g cooked chicken
• 1 medium onion finely chopped
• 2 celery sticks, trimmed and finely diced
• 1 large carrot, peeled and finely diced
• 2 large white potatoes, peeled and diced
• 2oz butter
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1.5l chicken stock
• 6oz basmati rice
• 2 chillies finely diced
• 1 tbsp finely chopped or grated fresh ginger
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 2 tsp each of ground cumin, turmeric, coriander, curry powder, and black pepper
• 2tbsp tomato puree
• Juice of half a lemon
• 4 tbsp natural yoghurt
• Salt and pepper to taste

How to Make Chicken Mulligatawny Soup

1. Cook the chicken in advance, or shred leftover chicken.
2. Add the butter and oil to a pan, then put over medium-high heat on the hob.
3. Next, add the chopped carrots, celery, potatoes, and onions to the pan and saute for five minutes until beginning to soften.
4. Then, add the chopped chilli, ginger, garlic, black pepper, and all the spices to the pan. Cook for five more minutes, stirring occasionally. If the ingredients start to stick to the pan, you should add a splash of water.
5. Cover the ingredients with the chicken stock, then add the lemon juice and tomato puree.
6. Next, put the lid on the pan and reduce the heat. Leave the mixture to simmer for approximately 20 minutes or until all the vegetables are tender.
7. Add the chicken and rice to the pan and cook for another 15 minutes.
8. Make sure the rice is cooked. If the rice needs longer, then cook for another five minutes.
9. Remove the pan from the heat, then stir in the natural yoghurt
10. Serve the chicken mulligatawny soup immediately.

Additional Tips

• Another Indian chicken soup you might like is our murgh shorba recipe.
• Try eating this soup with unleavened bread. Read our flatbread recipe.
• You can make this soup recipe in a soup maker if you have one that has the option not to churn the ingredients.
• It is also possible to make this soup in a slow cooker and leave it to cook while you are at work. However, I recommend putting the rice in when you return home rather than at the beginning of the day.
• Adapt the spices to suit your tastes. For example, add an extra chilli if you prefer spicy food.
• If you have vegetables you need to use up, add these instead of or as well as the vegetables listed in the ingredients for the chicken mulligatawny soup recipe.