Soup · Algerian
Algerian Chorba Beida (White Chicken Soup)
Algerian chorba beida recipe with chicken, chickpeas, fine vermicelli and a lemon-parsley egg-yolk finish, with clear tempering guidance.
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 55 min
- Total
- 75 min
- Serves
- 4 soup servings
Cook it
Method
Pat the chicken dry. Measure the onion, oil, butter or smen, cinnamon, white pepper, salt, stock, chickpeas and vermicelli before starting. Keep the egg refrigerated; measure the lemon juice and chop the parsley near the end, then separate the yolk immediately before tempering.
Heat the oil and butter or smen in a large heavy pot over medium heat. Add the onion and 2.5 ml of the salt, then cook for 6–8 minutes, stirring often, until soft and translucent without browning.
Add the chicken, whole cinnamon stick and white pepper. Cook for 4–5 minutes, turning the pieces, until their surfaces lose the raw pink colour and take on only light golden spots; dark browning will make the broth less pale.
Pour in the stock and scrape the base of the pot. Add the cooked chickpeas, bring just to a boil, then reduce to a gentle simmer. Cover with the lid slightly ajar and cook for 35–40 minutes, until the chicken is tender and its thickest part reaches at least 74°C away from the bone.
Transfer the chicken to a clean plate and remove the cinnamon stick. When the chicken is cool enough to handle, discard the bones and shred the meat into bite-size strands. Keep the broth at a gentle simmer.
Stir the broken vermicelli into the simmering broth and cook for 5–7 minutes, or for the package time if different, until just tender. Stir several times so the fine noodles do not settle into a clump on the pot base.
Whisk the egg yolk, lemon juice and chopped parsley in a heatproof bowl. While whisking continuously, add about 250 ml of hot broth a little at a time. Start with spoonfuls, then use a thin stream once the bowl feels warm; this tempers the yolk instead of scrambling it.
Turn the pot to very low heat. Slowly stir in the tempered yolk mixture, then return the shredded chicken. Heat gently while stirring until the soup reaches at least 71°C, but do not let it boil. Taste and add the remaining salt only if needed.
Ladle the soup into warm bowls and serve immediately. Each bowl should contain chicken, chickpeas and vermicelli in the pale lemon-parsley broth; stir the pot between servings because the noodles settle.
Make it work
Useful substitutions
- Boneless chicken thighs can replace bone-in pieces at the same weight. Begin checking earlier and remove them as soon as they reach 74°C so the meat stays tender.
- For dried chickpeas, cook them separately until fully tender, then use 120 g cooked weight. Do not rely on the soup’s short simmer to soften unboiled dried chickpeas.
- Fine egg noodles can replace vermicelli at the same weight; use their package time and stop while they are just tender.
- Clarified butter can replace smen or ordinary butter at the same weight. Using oil alone works, but the broth will lose some of its traditional buttery aroma.
Keep it well
Storage and reheating
- Divide leftovers into shallow containers and refrigerate within 2 hours. Under USDA FSIS leftovers guidance, use within 3 to 4 days or freeze promptly.
- The vermicelli continues to absorb broth during storage. Add a splash of water or unsalted stock when reheating, stir often, and heat every portion to 74°C (165°F).
- For the best freezer texture, freeze the cooked chicken-and-chickpea broth before adding vermicelli and the egg-lemon finish. Thaw safely, bring to a simmer, then complete the recipe with fresh noodles and binder.
Recipe notes
Sources and cooking notes
The pinned Wikibooks source provides the Algerian chicken, onion, chickpea, vermicelli, cinnamon, white-pepper, lemon, parsley and egg-yolk method. The source itself is marked incomplete because its ingredient and procedure formatting is faulty. This adaptation supplies an exact yield, measured salt and chickpeas, coherent ordered steps, temperature checks, tempering detail, make-ahead guidance and storage.
- Cookbook:Algerian White Chicken Vermicelli Soup (Chorba Beida) — Pinned source for the soup identity, core ingredients, chicken simmer, vermicelli and tempered egg-lemon-parsley finish.
- AI Love Food editorial methodology — Resolved source formatting gaps and added measured quantities, ordered steps, troubleshooting, substitutions and make-ahead guidance.
- FoodSafety.gov: Safe Minimum Internal Temperatures — Chicken to 74°C, egg dishes to 71°C and leftovers to 74°C.
- USDA FSIS: Leftovers and Food Safety — Refrigeration within 2 hours, shallow-container cooling, 3 to 4 days of refrigerated storage and reheating leftovers to 74°C (165°F).
Cooking tips and troubleshooting
Keep the broth pale
Use a whole cinnamon stick rather than ground cinnamon, soften the onion without browning it and colour the chicken only lightly. These choices preserve the characteristic white-to-pale-gold appearance.
Temper before the yolk reaches the pot
Adding hot broth gradually raises the yolk’s temperature and dilutes it before it meets the larger pot. Pouring a cold yolk mixture straight into boiling soup is the fastest route to visible egg threads.
If the soup begins to curdle
Take the pot off the heat immediately and stir gently. Small flecks are safe once the egg has reached temperature, though the soup will be less smooth. Next time, use lower heat and a slower temper.
Control noodle thickening
Fine vermicelli expands quickly and keeps taking up liquid after cooking. For make-ahead soup, cook and store the noodles separately or stop them just short of fully tender.
Scaling changes the pot, not the safety checks
The serving calculator scales amounts only. Use a pot with enough headroom for a gentle simmer, avoid crowding chicken pieces, and verify the largest piece still reaches 74°C.
Recipe source and licence
Adapted by AI Love Food from Cookbook:Algerian White Chicken Vermicelli Soup (Chorba Beida) by Wikibooks contributors (contributor history). This adapted recipe text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0. The image is credited separately.
Adapted from Cookbook:Algerian White Chicken Vermicelli Soup (Chorba Beida). Retains the chicken, onion, fat, cinnamon stick, white pepper, broth, chickpea, vermicelli, egg-yolk, lemon and parsley identity plus the gentle simmer, shredding and tempering method. Replaces the vague handful of soaked chickpeas with 120 g cooked chickpeas, measures salt and lemon juice, defines four servings, sets prep and cooking times, reorganizes the incorrectly formatted source into nine ordered steps, adds 74°C chicken and 71°C egg-finish checks, and adds curdling, noodle, storage, freezing and scaling guidance. The adapted recipe text is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; the separately generated image is not copied from Wikibooks.