Rooster Sotanghon (Filipino Rooster Soup With Glass Noodles)

I’m a sucker for Filipino vacation feasts. I revel within the preparation—from collaborative lumpia-making marathons to day-long pig roasts to the day-of scramble to get the desk prepared simply in time for Noche Buena, the normal Christmas Eve midnight feast shared with household and mates —my favourite vacation amongst them. It takes a barangay (village) to drag this off.

On the middle of the Noche Buena feast—surrounded by vibrant platters of contemporary fruit, cured ham, cheeses, breads, and roasted and fried dishes—a humble noodle soup stands out: hen sotanghon, which takes its title from the rice noodles (sontanghon) which can be an important part of the dish. This seemingly easy soup, with its delicate garlicky amber broth enveloping glass noodles and slivers of hen, mushrooms, and cabbage, carries inside it the layered historical past of culinary influences that make Filipino meals so distinctive.

Extra than simply one other providing on the desk, hen sotanghon is a cornerstone of the Noche Buena custom—a logo of household, unity, and gratitude in the course of the joyous vacation season. That is not a weeknight soup. It is a labor of affection—a gradual, intentional technique of coaxing deep taste from roasted hen bones and vegetable trimmings. The broth alone is well worth the time it takes: wealthy, golden, and aromatic from garlic and the Maillard response that occurs while you sear and roast the hen earlier than simmering. You might use a store-bought inventory or skip roasting the bones, nevertheless it simply would not be the identical.

Constructing a broth from hen bones and vegetable scraps ensures you extract each ounce of taste and honor a zero-waste kitchen follow (one thing I am keen about). When cooking, save your vegetable peels and trimmings—carrot ends, celery tops, cabbage scraps, mushroom stems, and scallion roots—for flavoring the broth. (The broth retains effectively frozen for future soups.) Accumulate and reserve the golden hen fats that is rendered throughout roasting—it provides incomparable depth while you sauté the aromatics. Cooking every part—the broth, greens, noodles, and aromatics—independently preserves their texture and freshness, leading to a soup that feels contemporary and vibrant even after freezing and reheating.

Past its method and taste, hen sotanghon additionally tells a narrative—a mirrored image of commerce, adaptation, and the shared histories that form Filipino delicacies. Rooster sotanghon is made with mung bean thread noodles, hen, and your alternative of greens—often carrots, cabbage, and mushrooms—and a broth coloured with annatto seeds. Traditionally, the mung bean thread noodles (sotanghon) have been imported from China and prized as a luxurious ingredient in contrast with the extra widespread rice vermicelli. Their presence on the vacation desk signified abundance and celebration. The dish itself displays centuries of commerce and trade: noodles from China, annatto from the Manila-Acapulco Galleon Commerce, and the Filipino genius for adaptation and hospitality.

Noodle dishes have been launched to the Filipino weight-reduction plan by way of commerce between the Philippines and China throughout pre-colonial occasions. Sotanghon is derived from the Hokkien phrase suwatanghon (pronounced sua-tan-hun), that means “small, wrinkly noodles,” that are opaque when uncooked and translucent when cooked. Using annatto to paint the broth was a product of the Manila-Acapulco Galleon Commerce in the course of the Columbian Change. Each bowl is a celebration of that historical past and of the care that turns a humble hen soup into the guts of a Filipino feast.