Bahamas

The dish

Chicken souse is a peppery lime soup with chicken, potatoes, and onions. It’s served with johnny cake, a dense, slightly sweet bread baked in a pan.

What we thought

This one was interesting because one kid loved the chicken but hated the johnny cake. The other liked the johnny cake but hated the chicken. Personally, I thought the johnny cake tasted like a standard biscuit and the chicken souse didn’t have enough flavor. I think I would have liked it a lot more if I’d made it spicy enough that the kids wouldn’t have eaten it. Average rating was a 3/5.

Ingredients and directions

• 3 lb chicken wings
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 lb russet or yukon gold potatoes, chopped into squares
• 4 sticks of chopped celery
• 1 yellow chopped onion
• 2 chopped carrots
• 1-2 small hot peppers (depends on what you like)
• 1 small hot pepper
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 3 limes, juiced
• 1/2 tbsp allspice
• 1 bay leaf
• ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
• salt
• pepper

Note that this recipe highly depends on how much spice you want. Most recipes recommend a habanero. That would be way too hot for my kids. I used a serrano (non-chopped), and they still complained about the heat. I recommend a hotter pepper if you like spicy food as that would have improved this recipe substantially.

Directions

1. Boil the chicken in a pot of water for 10 minutes. The water will look foamy. Drain the wings and rinse them off with water.
2. Rinse the foam out of the pot then return it to the stove. Heat the oil over a medium heat. Once hot, add the potatoes.
3. Cook the potatoes for 3 minutes, stirring frequently.
4. Add the celery, carrots, garlic, and onions to the pot. Add the allspice and red pepper flakes. Salt and pepper the veggies per your taste, recommended 1 tsp salt and ½ tsp of pepper. Cook until fragrant (about 2 minutes).
5. Add the hot peppers and chicken back to the pot. Then cover with just enough water to submerge the wings.
6. Add lime juice and bay leaf plus salt to taste, about another 2 tsp.
7. Mix the soup. Once boiling, reduce the heat to a medium and cover. Simmer for 30 minutes or until the potatoes are fork tender and the chicken is cooked through.

Johnny cake

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup sugar
• ½ stick unsalted butter
• 2 cups milk
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 cup water
• 2 tbsp melted butter for glazing

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease an 11x9 baking pan and set aside.
2. Mix the eggs, sugar, and butter together. Then add the milk, oil, and water. Add the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Add the flour, baking powder and salt, mixing until it doesn’t have lumps. The constancy should halfway between a bread dough and cake batter, slightly closer to cake batter. Add more water if necessary.
3. Pour mixture into greased pan and bake for 30mins. Brush the melted butter over the top and continue to bake for another 15 mins or until golden brown and butter knife comes out clean from the middle.
4. Serve warm with butter and/or jam.