A reader sent an e-mail asking if I intended to focus on restaurant reviews henceforth considering how much I seem to have slowed down in posting recipes. The answer is no. It’s just the bloody summer heat that keeps me away from the kitchen. It might be difficult for non-Philippine residents to imagine what I mean. Many foreigners think it’s heaven to live in a country where the sun shines all year round. But, honestly, summer this year has not been friendly. It’s been an awful killer. I still cook — I have to; otherwise, we’ll starve — but I’m not too imaginative these days. I keep things simple. And when I feel really, really lethargic, we eat sandwiches. 
If there seems to be more restaurant reviews than usual, well, the reason is summer related too. Summer break means we go out more, we eat out more and, ergo, more restaurant reviews are posted.
That said, let me switch to the chicken and misua soup that you see in the photo. I had two spring chickens and I cut off the breasts — whole. What remained of each chicken, I chopped in half. So, I had four large chicken pieces. I seasoned them with salt and pepper, placed them in the fridge — covered — for grilling later.
The chicken breasts became the chicken and misua soup. I deboned the breasts and cut the meat into rather large pieces. I boiled the bones, together with the necks, to make the broth. I made a lot of soup for lunch and what we didn’t consume for lunch, I served with the oven-grilled chicken for dinner.
So, let’s make the chicken and misua soup.
Ingredients :
meat from two chicken breasts
half a head of garlic
1 large white onion
2 cooking (not salad) tomatoes
1 to 2 bunches of misua
chicken broth
salt
pepper
patis
3-4 tbsps. of cooking oil
1/2 tsp. of dried thyme (optional)
Cooking procedure :
Debone the chicken breasts and cut the meat into large strips, about an inch and a half wide and three inches long. Place in a bowl, season with salt and pepper. Throw in the dried thyme, if using, and mix well. Cover the bowl and let sit in the fridge while preparing the rest of the ingredients.
Crush, peel and finely mince the garlic.
Peel and finely slice the onion.
Roughly chop the tomatoes.
Heat the oil in a large sauce pan. Add the garlic, onion and tomatoes all at once and cook, stirring, until soft and the tomatoes start to render color. Add the chicken fillets and cook until opaque. Pour in the broth. Season with patis. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, cover and simmer for about 20 minutes.
Taste the broth and adjust the seasonings. Add the misua to the pan. Bring to a boil, turn off the heat and cover the pan for about 10 minutes to let the misua finish cooking in the hot broth.
If you want to make your chicken and misua soup extra special, add one or two beaten eggs to make a chicken and misua egg drop soup. After adding the misua to the pan and the broth starts to boil, pour the beaten egg(s) in a thin steam. Stir a few times. Turn off the heat, cover and wait for 10 minutes before serving.
I’ve been to the Philippines twice before in the summer to visit family, and I know what you mean about the summer heat there. It was definitely a kind of heat I wasn’t used to, even living in California.
I’ve always been in awe of any kind of Filipino soup as the broth is always so flavorful, be it a chicken or fish or pork-based soup. This mastery of broth is something that I have not yet learned from my mother or grandmother. Your chicken misua soup looks delicious.
i like misua too, and i also cook it this way, w/o the thyme nga lang, but instead, i put in slices of “patola”. its also good with sardines in oil. this is one of my faves especially pag umuulan…
I live in Kansas City, and love to cook, but when it gets hot, cooking with heat gets rather disgusting! I make salads and sandwiches like you. Or, I cook in the morning or evening before the sun comes up or goes down. Since I don’t own a microwave, we just don’t eat hot foods all the time. My husband doesn’t seem to mind.
Oh, I forgot to ask. What is misua?
Very nice and simple recipe, and yeah the “bowl” is very appropriate too!
hi! this i will definitely try, am so fond of misua. been cooking ur recipe for baked mac and ernest cantos for so many times now. btw, been thinking of bringing my mom to vieux chalet for her bday, but the mobile number u posted here before seems not to be working anymore. do u have their new number? do i need to make reservations? thanks so much for your blog. it’s great, a lot of help to us working moms.
Ye, I agree that this kind of weather does tend to affect our mood in cooking. I get very lazy these days. Soups are very good idea for these hot & balmy days..Kudos!
hmm I never tried adding tomatoes in my chicken misua soup. Nilalagyan ba talaga? Or twist mo yan?
re: avoiding the kitchen
Kahit London na ko, pagdating ng April at naisip ko pa lang kusina namin sa probinsya gusto ko nang ma-dehydrate. Suffocating. Then I visited my sister in Dubai 3 years ago in June, mas matindi ang init sa kusina nya – nakakahimatay.
Yum Yum! I wish we’re neighbors tita Con!
I understand what you feel tita Con every summer…I even hate summer here even I came from Pinas…but summer here in Australia is worst. I just thought this meals would be easier to prepare for summer tita, like Chicken or Beef borritos. You could just cook the chicken strips or beef strips in oyster sauce to make it lil saucy. And meron po mnsan nabibili na borritos na ksama na po ung powder for the beef or chicken. And just add lettuce or any desired veggies you and your family love and put some tomato sauce (ketchup) and mayo.Or kya po Ceasar Salad with Grilled Chicken. What I did pra d msyado mahirap I bought ceasar salad dreassing ehehe! Pra mdali po! Hindi sya mabigat po sa tummy pero nkakabusog po talaga and mdali p po iprepare ;D
Cheers!
Re #4. Della-Jane, there is a link in the entry. Wikipedia has a very good article on misua.
Re #6. Rose, have you tried the landline? 6970396. Mobile is 09178565175. No reservations needed unless it’s Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day or something.
Re #8. Auee, tomatoes are my addition. Kasi the soup looks so pale. Eh ayaw ko naman ng artificial coloring.
Re #9. Caesar’s Salad with chicken. Naku, gimmick ko rin yan. I use chicken break fillets and place them on top of the veggies.
Hi connie, i’ve recently subscribed to your blog and this is my first time to post a comment. Been doing the chicken soup but with cabbage, potatoes and carrots. Will definitely try with misua. My husband and two teenage sons need to have soup most of the time.Thanks.
Hi macris, soup is so great to counter dehydration in this heat.
This dish looks so good. Pardon my ignorance ms connie, but growing up, i thought that you can only cook misua with sardines? Infact, it’s one of my favourite way or i should say the only way i know to cook sardines and misua -you saute it with garlic and onions, add a little bit of water, add the misua and a squueze of kalamansi…
I would definitely try this dish soon!
naku, dhay, you should try the traditional chinese misua dish. dry but very very tasty.
I was surprised with your chicken misua recipe, i thought it was only me who cooks chicken misua except that i used chicken cutlets, all parts bone in. Its easy to feed my little daughter who is kinda autistic with food cooked with misua and lots of soup. Maybe i should start adding tomatoes to mine like yours. Guess what ate connie, the only difference is i add a little sesame oil to my chicken misua at the end of my cooking. It tastes great and even very very chinese.
Hi, Connie! I was figuring out to do with my stash of misua and sotanghon noodles (which a friend had given me), and I found your recipe online. I tried it out, and I was very happy with the results. (Especially since this was my first time to cook this!)
The thyme certainly adds a very distinct flavor, and the tomato gives it a nice color. The flavor is very subtle and light on the palate. I had planned this to be a soup, but when I added the noodles, they absorbed all the broth! So it eventually turned into chicken sotanghon. Oh well. It was a pleasant surprise anyway.
I will definitely make this again. Thanks so much for sharing it!
Hey Connie,
I remember when i was young, my aunt use to make misua and use ADIDAS (chicken feet), cubes of coagulated chicken blood and patola too. We normally have this during sunday lunches.
Now that you mention chicken blood, I’ve always wondered where I could buy fresh chicken blood. There’s this recipe for dinuguang manok using fresh chicken blood and I’ve been wanting to make it for the longest time.