Chicken and Chayote Soup with Cilantro and Lime
A clear, golden broth built fast on browned chicken thigh, chayote, carrot, and turmeric, finished at the table with cilantro, diced avocado, and a hard squeeze of lime.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
A soup that tastes like it sat on the stove all afternoon usually did, and this one does not. What makes it work in half an hour is browning the chicken first in the empty pot, hard, so the bottom goes brown and sticky before a drop of liquid arrives. Everything that would normally come from hours of simmering is sitting right there, and the broth lifts it in about ten seconds. Cut the thigh meat small and it is tender by the time the vegetables are done, which is the whole reason this is a weeknight soup rather than a Sunday one.
Chayote is the ingredient I most want people to try here. It is a pale green squash shaped like a pear with a single soft seed, sold in most grocery stores and nearly every Latin market, and it holds up in broth in a way that zucchini never will. Peeled and cubed, it goes translucent at the edges while the center keeps a faint crispness, somewhere between a cucumber and a young summer squash. It also takes on whatever it is cooked in, so it tastes of garlic and chicken and turmeric rather than of itself.
The first cold evening of the year calls for this, and so does any night somebody in the house is not feeling right. It is light on its feet and still a real dinner, and the bowl gets finished at the table rather than in the pot, which I think matters. Avocado, cilantro, and lime go on last, at everyone's own hand, so the bowl in front of you tastes the way you want it rather than the way I decided twenty minutes ago.
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 3/4-inch pieces
- 5 cups chicken bone broth
- 2 chayote squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
- 2 carrots, cut into thin coins
- 1 onion, finely diced
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 avocado, diced, to finish
- 1 tbsp avocado oil
- 3 tbsp lime juice, from 2 limes, plus wedges to serve
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro, stems and all
- 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
- 3/4 tsp dried oregano
- 1/4 tsp fine sea salt, plus more to taste
Instructions
- Cut everything before you start: Cut the chicken into 3/4-inch pieces, peel and cube the chayote, slice the carrots into thin coins, dice the onion, and mince the garlic. Chop the cilantro with its stems. Leave the avocado whole and the limes uncut until the soup is nearly done.
- Brown the chicken in the dry pot: Heat the avocado oil in a heavy pot over medium-high until it shimmers. Add the chicken in one layer with the salt and leave it undisturbed for four minutes, since the crust only forms where the meat is touching hot metal, until the undersides are deep brown and the bottom of the pot has gone sticky and dark. Stir once and cook two minutes more.
- Soften the aromatics and bloom the spices: Add the onion and cook for three minutes, stirring and scraping, until it turns translucent and starts pulling the brown film off the bottom. Stir in the garlic, turmeric, and oregano and cook for forty seconds, until the pot smells sweet and the turmeric has stained the onion gold.
- Add the broth and the vegetables: Pour in the bone broth and scrape the base clean with a wooden spoon. Add the chayote and carrot, bring to a brisk simmer, and cook for eight to ten minutes, until the chayote is translucent at the edges and a knife slides into a cube with slight resistance at the center. Do not let it boil hard or the chicken tightens.
- Finish in the bowls: Take the pot off the heat and stir in the lime juice and half the cilantro. Taste and add salt only if the broth needs it, since brands vary a great deal. Ladle into wide bowls, spoon diced avocado into each, top with the rest of the cilantro, and put lime wedges on the table.
Variations
- Plantain and sweet potato: Add a ripe plantain in thick coins and a small cubed sweet potato with the chayote for a heavier, sweeter bowl closer to a stew.
- Greens at the end: Stir two big handfuls of shredded collard greens or kale into the pot for the last two minutes so they wilt but keep their color.
- Ginger and coconut: Grate a tablespoon of fresh ginger in with the garlic and stir half a cup of coconut milk into the finished pot for a rounder, creamier broth.
- Shredded rotisserie chicken: Skip the browning step and stir in shredded cooked chicken at the end, which brings the whole soup down to fifteen minutes.
Storage & Leftovers
The soup itself keeps four days sealed in the refrigerator, and it improves for the first two. Store it without the avocado, the last of the cilantro, or the lime, all of which belong in the bowl rather than the container. The chayote stays firm through the whole four days, which is more than most squash manages.
Reheat gently on the stovetop over medium, just to steaming rather than to a boil, since a hard boil is what turns tender thigh meat stringy. Then finish it exactly as you did the first time, with fresh lime, fresh herb, and fresh avocado, and it will taste like it was made that evening.
It freezes well for up to three months, again undressed. Freeze it flat in sealed bags and thaw overnight in the refrigerator. Chayote softens a little through freezing, so if you know a batch is headed for the freezer, pull it off the heat a minute earlier than you otherwise would.
Notes & Tips
- Brown before you pour: The dark sticky film on the bottom of the pot after the chicken browns is where most of this soup's flavor comes from. Pour the broth in and scrape it up, and you get depth that a longer simmer could not add later.
- Simmer, never boil: Thigh meat goes tender at a lazy simmer and tightens into strings at a rolling boil. Watch for a few bubbles breaking the surface and hold it right there.
- Peel the chayote: The skin is edible but tough and slightly waxy, and it never softens in the time this soup takes. A vegetable peeler handles it in under a minute per squash.
- Taste before you salt: Bone broths run from barely seasoned to quite salty depending on the brand, so the quarter teaspoon in the pot is a starting point. Season at the very end, after the lime has gone in, since acid changes how salty a broth reads.
Nutrition & Mindful Eating
- Chicken thigh, chayote, and a real bone broth are what hold this bowl together. The thigh meat gives the soup its protein and its richness, the chayote and carrot give it body and bite, and the broth carries all of it while staying light enough to eat a full bowl of on a warm night.
- Chicken thigh is a darker, looser-grained cut than breast, which is why it stays tender through a simmer and why the broth tastes as good as it does. Along with the protein it brings iron and zinc, both of which sit higher in the dark meat.
- Chayote is a pale green squash with a mild, faintly sweet flesh that goes translucent at the edges and keeps a slight crispness at the center. It is mostly water and soft fiber, with vitamin C and folate along for the ride, and it takes on the flavor of whatever it is simmered in.
- Avocado spooned into the bowl at the last second stays cool and buttery against the hot broth, and its monounsaturated fat is what makes a clear soup eat like a full dinner. It also carries more potassium than most people expect from something used as a topping.
- Turmeric bloomed in the pot before the liquid goes in is what turns the broth gold, and it is bitter and earthy enough to keep a light soup from tasting thin. Lime juice added off the heat is the other half of that job.
- As you eat, hold the first spoonful long enough to notice how the cold avocado and the hot broth arrive separately, and let a soup this thin be a reason to sit down properly rather than eat standing up.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where do I find chayote, and what if I cannot?
Look in the produce section near the squash, or at any Latin or Asian market, where it is often labeled mirliton or christophine. If there is none, use peeled kohlrabi cut the same size, which holds its bite just as well, or a firm summer squash added in the last four minutes.
Can I use chicken breast?
You can, though cut it slightly larger and add it in the last six minutes rather than browning it at the start. Breast meat dries out over the full cooking time, while thigh meat only gets better and is what makes the broth taste rich.
The broth tastes flat. What is missing?
Almost always acid, then salt, in that order. Add another tablespoon of lime juice before you reach for the salt cellar, and taste again. Bone broths vary enormously in how they are seasoned, which is why the salt in the recipe is deliberately small.
Can I make this into a bigger meal?
Add a peeled, cubed sweet potato or a ripe plantain in thick coins along with the chayote. Both cook in about the same time and turn the bowl into something considerably more substantial.