Chicken Clear Soup Salt Free Recipe | Alni Pani Recipe

PC: Asma Dhanshe

A traditional kokani soup popularly known as ‘Alni Pani’ in kokani language and that translates to “water without salt”. This soup is preferably made with home grown organic chicken and homemade ‘desi ghee’. The spices are made fragrant by spluttering in desi ghee and then the chicken is cooked covered in fragrant water for several minutes. The resulting soup is so healthy and yummy that you can’t even guess that it doesn’t have any salt in it. This soup is an amazing remedy for cough and cold and relaxes those aching muscles of your sore throat in no time.

Chicken Clear Soup Salt Free Recipe | Alni Pani Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 whole organic chicken (better look for home grown)
• 1 tablespoon desi ghee + 1 teaspoon for garnishing
• 8-10 corns of black pepper
• 1” x 3 sticks of cinnamon
• 3-4 garlic cloves
• 1/4th teaspoon grated ginger
• ½ tablespoon ginger and garlic paste
• 3-4 almonds
• 1 teaspoon fennel seed powder
• 1/4th teaspoon turmeric powder
• A fat pinch of saffron strands
• 1.2 L of water

How to make:

1. Clean and wash the chicken and keep covered in the deep freezer.
2. Take a large pot and heat ghee and add cinnamon sticks, peppercorns, garlic cloves and grated ginger and let them splutter. When fragrant, add ginger garlic paste and sauté for and few seconds then add turmeric powder and fennel seed powder and stir well. Pour water when it comes to a boil lower the heat and let it cook covered for 10 minutes.
3. After the water has boiled for about 10 minutes, add in the chicken and again cover the pot and let it cook till chicken is done completely.
4. Take a deep and wide serving bowl to serve this soup. Take chicken pieces in the bowl first then pour the soup and garnish it with desi ghee (it will melt immediately and make a nice mirror like surface) and saffron strands. Serve immediately. The traditional way of serving this soup is to place the bowl over a flat plate and then the it is served in the tray. Don’t forget to put a LARGE soup spoon (you’ll realize WHY while enjoying this soup.)