Home / Azerbaijan / Khamrashi – Chicken noodle soup

Khamrashi – Chicken noodle soup

Khamrashi - Chicken noodle soup
Khamrashi (xəmraşi) can be made with a clear beef or lamb broth or, as in this recipe, with chicken broth.

If you have no time to make your own noodles (arishta – əriştə), use bought fettucine or linguine instead. News.Az is grateful to Gullu Cahangir for allowing us to use her khamrashi recipe and photograph, taken from her informative website Azerifood.com

Preparation time: 45 min
Cooking time: 1 hour
Serves: 3-4

Ingredients

  • 150 g/6 oz chicken on the bone
  • 1 cup of black-eyed beans (known as “nightingale’s eyes” or bül-bül göz in Azerbaijani)
  • 5-6 threads of saffron
  • salt & pepper
  • dried mint
  • For the noodles:
  • 125 g/5 oz premium quality plain wheat flour
  • 1 egg
  • water

Preparation

  • Make a light dough from the flour, water, salt and egg.
  • Divide the dough into four large balls. Place the balls on a tea towel and cover with clingfilm. Leave to rest for 5 to 10 minutes.
  • Roll out the dough to a thickness of 2-3 mm. Traditionally, a thin, light rolling pin is used. Add flour when rolling out if the dough is too sticky.
  • Cut the rolled dough into strips and lay out on a tea towel. Leave for 24 hours to dry.
  • Noodles that are not used in the soup can be kept in a dry place for future use.
  • If using dried black-eyed beans, rinse them and simmer in a generous amount of water until soft (approximately 45 minutes).
  • Rinse the chicken and simmer in a generous amount of water until the meat is falling off the bone (approximately 45 minutes). Skim off any foam that forms on top of the pan.
  • Take the chicken out of the water. Strain the water, which has now become bouillon, into another saucepan. Take the chicken meat off the bone and break into small pieces to add to the soup.
  • Bring the bouillon to the boil, add 6 threads of saffron and boil for 3 minutes.
  • Add a large quantity of the noodles, more than you would normally add to soup but not so much that they soak up all the liquid. Also add the cooked chicken, cooked beans and salt & pepper.
  • Bring the soup back to the boil and simmer until the noodles are cooked (4-6 minutes).
  • Serve with a sprinkling of crushed, dried mint on top.

About Farid