Around the World in Chicken Soup

Seven of L.A.’s best restaurant-made chicken soups, from Sichuan to Mexican.

I’ve been eating a lot of chicken soup lately. It’s wintertime, which means intermittent rain storms in L.A., and a bowl of chicken soup is both nourishing and life-giving. It’ll remedy a cold, warm your bones, revive your soul. Chicken soup is a hug from grandma, and the best versions taste like grandma made them. (Granted that grandma is a great cook.) 

Growing up, my mom would make me chicken soup when I was under the weather. And when I was sick last summer, David made me chicken soup out of a chicken from Standings Butchery, potatoes, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, ginger, and whole peppercorns. Some of the carrots he used were purple, which dyed the soup purple. Still, it was delicious. David learned to make chicken soup from his mom, and the same is true for many of us who make chicken soup. That got me thinking about how chicken soup is associated with home. We make it ourselves for people we love, or we receive it, at our kitchen tables or at our bedside, from people we love.

This is why when I put out a call on Instagram for the best chicken soup in Los Angeles, I only received a small handful of responses. Several of them were along the lines of, “I usually just make my own at home.” Yet chicken soup takes time and care; the longer you can simmer chicken in water, the better. Some nights I crave it but didn’t have the foresight to gather the ingredients and get a broth going. And so I went out in search of versions that could be there for me—and you—in a pinch.

Along the way, I realized that like many intrinsic foods, such as bread and dumplings, chicken soup is embraced by most cultures. For example, my grandma’s excellent matzoh ball soup—made with homemade chicken broth, matzoh meal, eggs, and seasonings—was a fixture on our Passover table. In Vietnam, there’s phở ga, and in Korea, samgyetang (ginseng chicken soup). Mexicans tend to make chicken soup with rice, sometimes topped with slices of avocado. That’s a bit reductive, given how many cuisines contain myriad kinds of chicken soup, regional or otherwise. But you get the point. 

After months of research, here are my findings: seven chicken soups to seek out in greater Los Angeles, all of which I highly recommend.