Fifteen minutes, one pan, and it tastes like the thing you would order.
Half the sweetcorn goes in crushed. Crush it against the side of the pan or squash it in the tin with a fork before it goes anywhere near the water. That starch is what makes this soup cloudy and sweet instead of clear with corn floating in it, and it is the step every home version skips.
- 600 ml of water, the stock cube, the soy sauce and the ginger into the pan. Bring to a simmer.
- Crushed sweetcorn in, then the rest whole. Five minutes.
- Chicken shredded with two forks and added with its packing water. Three minutes, no more, or it goes woolly.
- Cornflour slaked in three tablespoons of cold water, stirred in off the boil, then back on the heat for a minute until it thickens and turns glossy.
It should coat a spoon thinly. If it sets like wallpaper paste you used too much cornflour and a splash of water will undo it.
Pepper hard at the table. White pepper if you have it, which is the flavour most people are actually remembering.
Serves 3.