On Thursdays, chef Vinny Benedett serves warm, delicious bowls of chicken long rice soup from Onolicious, his Hawaiian-themed food stall at Oakley Kitchen.
It's a traditional Hawaiian dish that's more frequently served as a side, not a soup, at holiday celebrations and luaus. Benedett serves it in soup form simply because it keeps better and lets him ladle it out all day as a quick lunch or dinner.
The recipe is simple enough. He browns and shreds marinated chicken thighs before sauteing diced garlic, ginger, shoyu (Japanese soy sauce) and fish sauce. He then adds the shredded meat to the chicken broth and simmers everything together before tossing in the rice noodles that he cooks until soft.
The result is a hearty, soul-warming soup with thick threads of chicken and chewy, springy rice noodles brightened by ginger and the fresh scallions that are served as a garnish.
[Crave more? Check out the tasty stuff Keith has been writing about lately🍽️]
Straightforward as it may be, the dish taps into our universal longing for chicken soup to be something far more comforting and far less tangible than mere nourishment; whether it's a homemade version made for a sick toddler in Southwest Ohio or a calming bowl of Tom Kha Gai (chicken galangal soup) slurped by a nostalgic executive in Thailand.
I was surprised when Benedett told me the soup hasn’t proven especially popular so far. Perhaps the warmer than usual weather we experienced in early October had something to do with it.
But last week, when he chose not to make it, he heard from his customers (not to mention his wife and business partner, Elena) that he needed to bring it back. I agree. We need more chicken soup in this world.
Onolicious is located inside Oakley Kitchen, 3715 Madison Road, Oakley, 513-321-0034, onoliciousgrinds.com.
To see what Keith's been eating lately, follow him on Instagram at @keithpandolfi.
