This is a very nice soup to have for lunch in winter or summer. While it’s a hot and warming soup, it cooks quickly and is easy to prepare. It’s gingery and flavorful. One caveat: this is one soup that does not taste better the second day!
Chicken and Vegetable Miso Soup
Satsuma-jiru
serves 4
page 223
- 2 large chicken thighs, with bone and skin
- 2 ounces gobo (burdock; about 3-inches from the top—I used additional carrot because I just don’t like gobo: maybe I should try it again now that I see small tender roots that might not be so tough)
- 3 1/2 ounces (1 medium) satoimo (taro root) (recipe suggests you could substitute 2 small potatoes, peeled) Cut the taro or the potatoes in half lengthwise, then cut cross-wise into 1/4-inch slices.
- 1 half-inch piece of ginger, peeled and sliced
- 1 Tablespoon sake (rice wine)
- 3 1/2 ounces daikon, quartered lengthwise, then cut crosswise 1/4-inch thick
- 1 small carrot, halved lenthwise, then cut crosswise 1/4 inch thick
- 1 naganegi long onion, white part only, or a bunch of small green onions, white part only, cut into 1-inch lengths
- 3 Tablespoons akamiso (brown miso)
Garnish:
• Chicken soup tastes best when the broth is cooked with bones. The original recipe instructs the cook to hack the chicken into 1 1/2-inch pieces, bone and all.
This is both difficult to do neatly, and makes the food difficult to eat daintily. I cut the bone from the chicken and removed the skin. Then I cut the chicken into smaller pieces. When it was time to cook the soup, I added the bones with the meat. I cooked the chicken skin in a small heavy pan to make a crispy garnish (just like grebenes!)
• Combine 1 quart water, the chicken, bones, sliced ginger, and the sake in a medium pot. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat, and cook until the foam disappears, skimming constantly. Add the (burdock,) daikon, and carrot, cover the pot, and cook for 10 minutes.
• Add the taro, onion and half of the miso. Cook for 5 minutes.
• Add the remaining miso, and stir until it is dissolved. Serve the soup immediately in individual bowls, garnished with the julienned ginger.
More Miso Soup Recipes From Tess
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Tess's Japanese Kitchen 
The soup looks so comforting and warm. I know what you mean when you bite into an old tough fibrous piece of gobo. That a real turn-off. I hope you give yourself a second chance at eating gobo. The kinpira style is nice with hot rice.
Yes, the fresh Japanese produce I find around here is not always top quality and the gobo has always been on the old and tough side.
The little Korean store had some nice looking roots last week, but I was too busy to buy it right then. I’m hoping to find it again, though.
Have you tried it from the freezer case? They regularly carry bags of kinpira style gobo, both seasoned and unflavored. But they are such large bags that I don’t want to invest so much freezer space if they aren’t good.
Since the fresh gobo are easy to get around here from stores to farmer markets, I never had the chance to try the frozen ones. But yet, since the frozen variety is already cleaned and julienned, maybe certain eateries use them and I didn’t know I was eating the frozen variety. Too bad they don’t sell them in small packages or have a demo.