Ginger Chicken Soup with Yuzu Kosho

One of my favorite things to watch on YouTube is “What I Eat in a Day” content. Seeing the delicious food that other people make and eat inspires my creativity in the kitchen. After watching people’s eating vlogs, I jot down ideas in a notebook, so I can look back whenever I need inspiration. 

I can’t exactly remember which video made me write this down, but I had written: yuzu kosho and chicken soup. Next to it, I wrote dak gomtang, which translates to Korean chicken soup. In Korean cuisine, gomtang — known for its flavorful, milky broth — is a soup made by simmering bones and meat for several hours. The most popular protein choices for gomtang are pork or beef, which take a long time to cook. Chicken, on the other hand, makes for an equally nourishing broth that takes less time. Traditionally, a whole chicken is used to make dak gomtang, but it’s a bit of a hassle to separate the meat from the bones, especially when the chicken is piping hot. 

Inspired by dak gomtang, I use chicken thighs in this soup, instead of a whole bird, to make the job slightly easier. Plus, bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs have the perfect bone-to-meat ratio for soup, which results in a nourishing broth that’s simply seasoned with salt, pepper, and plenty of fresh scallions. To add my own flair to this comforting soup, I toss in lemon and extra ginger for zing, along with a special ingredient that brings the perfect amount of brightness with a little bit of heat: yuzu kosho. 

It’s the type of chicken soup that tastes familiar, yet new. I love serving up a bowl with rice submerged in the broth, but it also makes a delicious base for a noodle soup. 

Yuzu kosho is a beloved Japanese condiment with two main flavoring ingredients: spicy fresh chiles, typically green, and yuzu, a sweet-tart citrus fruit. Those two ingredients get fermented with salt, creating a pleasantly spicy, zesty, and umami-rich flavor that adds a special kick to many dishes. 

It has a paste-like consistency and comes in a squeezable bottle or a small glass jar. Depending on the color of the chiles used to make the paste, the color is either green or red.

Combining the two main ingredients — yuzu and chiles — results in a citrusy, punchy condiment that’s both balanced and layered in flavor. It’s not so spicy that it overwhelms everything, so it’s often used as a flavor enhancement to ramen broth or marinade.

Yuzu kosho is a versatile condiment that has no limits. You can mix it into mayonnaise, preferably Kewpie, for a zesty, spicy dipping sauce. Or, you can add a thin smear of it to your avocado toast. But that’s not all: Add a dollop to your instant ramen broth, or make a punchy salad dressing with it. A little bit goes a long way, so I encourage you to have fun experimenting with incorporating its unique flavor.

In this recipe, its addition turns this humbling Korean soup into the ultimate cozy soup. Here, I used green yuzu kosho, but you can also use red yuzu kosho, which will turn the broth a beautifully subtle orange color. Even though the yuzu kosho is only mixed with the shredded chicken meat, the seasoned meat gets added back in and seasons the soup with its delightful flavor.