Jamaican Chicken Soup

Delicious warm and hearty homemade Jamaican chicken soup with an assortment of root vegetables seasoned with homemade cock soup mix

Course Soup

Cuisine Jamaican

Prep Time 25

Cook Time 1 15

Total Time 1 40

Servings servings

Calories 256kcal

Author Charla

1 ½ -2 lb chicken I used thighs and 2 chicken breast fillets(8-10 pieces), cut into chunks
10 cups water 2 ½ litres
1 lb pumpkin can use 1 large butternut squash, chopped
2 medium potatoes Irish or sweet potatoes, chopped
1 Cho cho chopped
2 medium carrots chopped
2 scallion chopped
6 sprigs thyme
Scotch bonnet
8 pimento berries
Homemade cock soup mix see post for recipe link (use 3tbsp if using my homemade mix)

Bring a stock pot of water to the boil
Place the chicken, half of the pumpkin/squash and the pimento berries in the stock pot with water.
Leave the pot to boil for 30 minutes (place a lid halfway over the pot) until the chicken is cooked and squash/pumpkin is tender. The pumpkin should have broken down and change the colour of the water. If it hasn't use a fork to mash the pumpkin/smash.
Skim off any excess foam that develops on the top of the boiling water.
Make your dumpling by placing the flour and pink salt in a medium sized bowl, add a little water at a time (you may not need all of the water so use your own judgement).
Mix the flour and water into a dough ball.
Grab a small (golf ball size) amount of the dough and roll into the palm of your hands to create "spinners". To make regular shaped dumpling form the doughball into discs.
Carefully lower each of the spinners and dumpling into the boiling pot of soup
Add the rest of the pumpkin/squash, scallion, cho cho, potatoes, carrots, thyme, homemade cock soup mix and scotch bonnet.
Once all of the ingredients have been added reduce the heat to medium, cover and simmer for 45 minutes until the soup thickens up.

I recommend removing the chicken skin before making the soup, if you don't care for the excess fatty deposits in your soup ( I hate it).
Make sure the water levels are constant when cooking the chicken (10 cups). If the water levels do reduce replenish so there's enough water/liquid to make the soup.
Use which part of the chicken you want. I even add a few strips of chicken breast to serve people a combination of on the bone chicken with some loose pieces.
If the pumpkin doesn't break down completely when it is cooking with the chicken, then use the back of a fork to mash it down to yield some colour.
It is customary to rinse the chicken with lime/lemon, vinegar and/or salt BEFORE cooking it. This is done to remove any debris and to neutralize the chicken.
If you want a spicy soup burst/prick the scotch bonnet before dropping it into the pot.
Use a stock pot that yields at least 4 quarts/3 litres to avoid the risk of any over spill.
Feel free to use whatever vegetables (as listed above) that you want to use, it's a matter of preference.
You can add cassava dumpling or cornmeal dumpling instead