🍲 Chicken Sopas

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp butter or olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 250 grams chicken meat, still attached to the bones
• Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 3–4 cups water
• 1 cup dried elbow macaroni
• 1 carrot, diced
• ½ head of cabbage, shredded
• 375 ml (1½ cups) evaporated milk

Method

1. Preheat oil in a pot. Add onion and garlic, and sauté them. Be careful not to burn them, as this will give your soup a burnt and bitter taste.
2. Add the chicken, salt, and pepper. Let it cook but don't let it brown. Browning the meat will give you a dark broth with an unpleasant taste.
3. Pour in water and bring everything to a boil.
4. As soon as the water boils, the scum from the chicken will rise to the top—you can skim it off.
5. Season again with salt and pepper—this is called "layering" in cooking.
6. Add the elbow macaroni and cook for 7 minutes or so.
7. The macaroni will have absorbed some of the salt by now, so season again with salt.
8. Add the carrots and cabbage. Mix well.
9. Add in the milk but don't let it boil—boiling will make the milk separate and ruin the soup's texture.
10. Serve immediately because the elbow macaroni will absorb most of the milky broth if you let it stand too long.
11. Enjoy!