Ang Sarap (A Tagalog word for "It's Delicious")

Chicken Mami

Chicken Mami is one of the popular Hawker and comfort food in the Philippines, its similar to Hotdogs on America, Char kway teow in Malaysia and Meat pies in New Zealand.  Mami is an egg noodle soup which its name came from the Chinese word “mie” meaning noodle, but due to Ma Mon Luk (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma_Mon_Luk), A chinese entrepreneur who popularized this dish in Manila, the new name was born, some said the name mami was a combination of his name “Ma” and “Mi” for noodles but others said the word came from combining “Ma” from “Manok” (chicken in Tagalog) and “Mi” for noodles.  This dish is one of the Filipino dishes that have a very rich history and defined the landscape of Chinese restaurants in the Philippines.

This is a very simple dish but you have to do it right so that you can capture the real taste of what mami is.  Preparing the broth is the key and the rest would be a breeze.  I was thinking of this dish for a long time, that’s why I already had prepared a lot of chicken bones for my broth.  I do debone my chickens at home and kept all the bones until I had gathered a good amount of it, to be precise I guess I had around 3 kilograms of chicken bones which mostly come from thighs and legs.  I guess with that amount of bones we can make a really good chicken broth.  Another key ingredient is the egg noodles used, which you should never ever opt for the dried or preserved ones and always use the freshly made ones that you can buy on Asian shops or wet markets, and use it on the day it was made and do not over cook it.

So if you have gathered the key ingredients then try making this noodle soup, trust me you will never again think that Asian Chicken Noodle Soup is a boring dish.

Ingredients

3kg chicken bones (mixture of thighs and legs)
3 pcs large chicken thighs
3 litres water
1 large carrot, roughly chopped
1 tbsp peppercorns
1 large stalk celery, roughly chopped
2 large onion
4 thin slices of ginger
250g fresh egg noodles
toasted garlic
spring onions, chopped
hard boiled eggs, cut in half
lemon
freshly ground black pepper
salt

Method

1. Cut the chicken thigh bones and leg bones in two, exposing the bone marrow.  Now place the bones together with chicken thighs, carrots, peppercorns, celery, onions, ginger, 1 tbsp salt and 3 tbsp toasted garlic in a deep pot. Add enough water to cover the ingredients that’s roughly 2 litres.  Bring to a boil and simmer in low heat for 45 minutes.
2. Remove the chicken thighs but continue simmering the bones in low heat for 2 more hours or until the bones are soft.  Debone and flake the cooked chicken and place the bones back into the simmering broth.
3. Now using a fine sieve, separate the broth from the bones and transfer it on a separate pot.  Once cooled down place on fridge this will make the top layer of fat hard and easy to remove.  Now remove the top layer fat and place it on a separate container.
4. Bring the stock to a boil and add no more than 2 tablespoons of fat that initially removed, reduce 1/3 of the liquid then adjust taste by adding salt according you your liking.
5. On a separate pot add water and bring to a boil, once rapidly boiling place the fresh egg noodles and cook it for 30 seconds.  Remove from heat and place on a colander, run it on tap water so cooking process would stop.
6. Place water again on the same pot and bring it to a boil, once boiling pour it on the colander with the noodles.
7. Place noodles on individual bowls, put around 4 tbsp flaked chicken, 2 tbsp chopped spring onions, 2 halves of boiled eggs, 1 1/2 tsp toasted garlic on top then pour hot broth over.
8. Season with freshly ground black pepper and juice from 1/2 lemon.