Filipino Recipe Chicken Sopas (Pinoy Chicken Sopas)

200-250 grams chicken (chicken breast is best, but any part should be okay)
3-4 cups water
1 chicken stock cube (optional)
1 small onion, sliced
1-2 cloves garlic, crushed/minced
1 tsp cooking oil (vegetable or canola)
1 cup small shell pasta*
1 carrot, cubed (as in, small cubes)
1 stalk celery, sliced (leaves and bottom part removed)
1/2 cup shredded cabbage
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
salt and pepper** to taste
1 tsp fish sauce, aka patis (optional)

* I used to use elbow macaroni, but I found that I prefer the shell pasta nowadays. You can use either macaroni or the shell pasta.
** I prefer to use freshly ground black pepper, but you can use any other type.

How to cook:

1. Boil the chicken in the water. You can already add the salt and pepper, if you like.
2. Once the chicken is cooked, take it out of the water to shred or to slice. Save the water as stock for later. Set aside the shredded chicken.
3. In a large saucepan, heat the oil. Add the garlic and saute until slightly brown, then add the onions.
4. Add the shredded chicken.
5. When the chicken is slightly brown, add the water (chicken stock). Add the chicken stock cube, if preferred.
6. When the water boils, add the pasta. Make sure that there’s enough water left for the pasta to cook. Just keep adding 1/2 cup of plain water (preferably hot), if/when needed. Make sure that you have enough liquid for a soup.
7. As soon as the pasta is ‘al dente’ (not quite cooked, but already softened), add the carrots and celery. Stir.
8. After 2-3 minutes, add the shredded cabbage. Keep stirring.
9. Add the egg. Make sure that you stir and break the egg – so you don’t get one lump of egg in your soup.
10. Once the egg is stirred in the soup, slowly add the milk and keep stirring. Remember not to add the milk all at once and you must stir, stir, stir. Otherwise, the milk might curdle. And, that’s not a pretty sight!
11. When you’ve successfully added all the ingredients, check if you need to add salt and/or pepper. Some people also opt to use fish sauce.
12. That’s it! You can now enjoy your chicken sopas.

Source: http://www.shaicoggins.com/chicken_sopas_recipe/