Fideo con Pollo

Fideo con Pollo (Sopa de Fideo con Pollo) is a traditional, Spanish soup made with roasted chicken, fresh tomatoes, stock, garlic, onions and cumin with fat-fried vermicelli..

Fideo con Pollo

half of a small roasted chicken
3-4 cups homemade chicken stock
2 tablespoons rendered chicken fat
3-4 fresh tomatoes, cored and chopped
1 Spanish onion, chopped
4-6 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
1 cup straight fideo (vermicelli) or 2-3 vermicelli nests
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 fresh jalapeño, diced (optional)
1 tablespoon safflower flowers (optional)
1 teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
sea salt
queso Oaxaca or other soft, melting cheese
fresh cilantro

Roast a chicken in the usual fashion and allow to cool enough to handle. Pull the meat and skin from 1/2 of the bird and tear or chop into largish pieces. Set aside.

Heat chicken fat in a heavy skillet over medium heat.  Add onions, garlic and vermicelli and sauté until the pasta is brown and somewhat crisp.  Add tomatoes and cook another 5 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add chicken, stock, tomato paste, safflower, jalapeño and black pepper, reduce heat and simmer until pasta is done. Adjust for salt, then ladle soup into individual cazuelas or soup bowls and serve piping hot with queso Oaxaca and torn cilantro.

This post is part of the Food Renegade’s Fight Back Friday!