This recipe is from a cookbook called Hot Sour Salty Sweet by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. It's a beautiful book, basically a coffee table book. We haven't made very many of the recipes from it; I'm not quite sure why.

The recipe calls for one 3-pound chicken, but I used about 3 or 3 1/2 pounds of chicken thighs and breasts (on the bone) instead: the smallest chicken I could find was about 4 pounds, and also it's easier to pick the meat off of thighs and breasts than at least some of the other parts of the chicken.

Hearty chicken soup with onions and garlic

Put in a large pot: one 3-pound chicken (or whatever), 3 to 4 scallions, 5 "whole coriander plants, including roots" plus 1/2 cup packed cilantro leaves (I used most of a well-rinsed bunch of cilantro, which included a tiny bit of th roots), 8 black peppercorns, 3 quarts of water. Bring to a boil, then turn down and simmer gently for 1 1/2 hours or so.

Remove chicken from soup; let it cool and then pick the meat off of the bones. Discard the bones. Strain the soup; let it cool, then refrigerate and skim off the fat after it hardens. (I started the soup on Wednesday, took out the chicken and strained the stock, and then stuck everything in the fridge until the next day.)

About half an hour before serving, put stock in a pot with 1 teaspoon salt and 3 tablespoons of fish sauce. Bring to a boil. Then add 1 large onion, finely chopped (I actually used a few leeks, since they needed to be used up), 8 small shallots, peeled, 1 head of garlic, cloves separated and peeled. Cook four about 15 minutes, until the shallots are tender. Add the chicken and cook for a minute or two to heat it through. Serve. (The recipe says to add 1 1/2 cups of the chicken and serve the rest on a platter to be added by each person.) Garnish with black pepper and cilantro (I forgot this part. I served it with rice, which added more body to the soup.)

Very yummy!