Molo Soup or Pancit Molo is a soup dish composed of a mixture of ground pork wrapped in wonton wrapper, shredded chicken meat, and shrimps. This dish resembles the Chinese wonton soup but the array of ingredients and flavor makes this dish stand out. After doing some research, I found out that this dish originated from a famous town in Iloilo, Philippines called “Molo” (yes, you guessed it right). But why call it Pancit (or Pansit) when there are no noodles in the dish? I too have the same question. Maybe our Ilonggo friends can help us out on this one.
I like my Molo soup topped with some minced green onions and lots of toasted garlic : I even put a teaspoon of fresh lemon or calamansi juice . This is one of the soups that I enjoy having during the cold months because it does not only make me feel warm ; it also brings out some childhood memories back home that are worth reminiscing.
This recipe is good for 20 people. We actually made this for a potluck party with our Filipino friends. Just use half or a quarter of the measurements depending on the number of people that you will share this with.
Try this Molo Soup recipe. Let me know what you think.
Molo Soup
Ingredients
- 2 lbs ground pork
- 2 lbs chicken
- 1 ½ cups water chestnut minced
- 6 tablespoons fish sauce
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 cup shrimp sliced, chopped, or minced
- ½ cup annatto seeds soaked in ¾ cup water
- 1 cup minced onions ¾ cup goes to the filling while ¼ is for sautéing
- 2 packs wonton wrapper about 100 counts
- ½ cup minced green onions
- 4 cloves garlic minced (about 2 tablespoons)
- ½ tablespoon ground black pepper
- 1 piece raw egg
- ¼ cup toasted garlic to garnish please see Arroz Caldo post on how to toast garlic
- 4 tablespoons cooking oil
- 12 cups water 8 cups to boil chicken, 4 cups to be added to the soup
Instructions
- Pour water in a casserole and bring to a boil.
- Put-in the chicken and boil for 40 to 60 minutes or until tender
- While waiting for the chicken to be tender, combine the ground pork, water chestnut, green onions, onions, egg, salt, and ground black pepper in a large mixing bowl then mix well until ingredients are well distributed.
- Get a piece of wonton wrapper and place in a clean flat surface.
- Scoop a tablespoon of the ground pork mixture and place on the middle of the wonton wrapper.
- Wrap the ground pork mixture with wonton wrapper (watch the video for more information): Slightly wet the borders of the wonton wrapper with water. Fold the wonton wrapper to secure the filling. The lower left end should meet the upper right end forming a triangle. Press the edges to make it intact and to avoid possibilities of opening). Slightly wet the three pointed sides of the wonton wrapper then fold each of them towards the middle (as if you are trying to connect the pointed end to an imaginary dot in the center of the wrapper).
- Continue doing this procedure until all the ground pork mixture is wrapped.
- Remove the chicken from the boiling water and let it cool down. Set chicken stock (water used for boiling) aside.
- Once the chicken reaches room temperature, manually separate the meat from the bones then chop the separated meat to your desired sized. Set aside.
- Heat a clean casserole then pour-in the cooking oil.
- Sauté the garlic and onions then add the chopped chicken and cook for 3 to 5 minutes.
- Add the fish sauce, annatto water (water from the soaked annatto seeds), and chicken stock then bring to a boil.
- Pour-in additional water then bring to a boil once more
- Add the shrimps then cook for a minute
- Add the wrapped ground pork mixture and cook for 12 to 18 minutes (use low heat)
- Put-in some minced green onions and toasted garlic as desired.
- Transfer to a serving bowl and serve while hot. Share and enjoy!
Nutrition
Watch the cooking video:
Liberty says
What can I use in place of water chestnuts?
Vanjo Merano says
Singkamas or jicama is a good alternative.
Virgie Roos says
thanks mr. chef for the reciopes I think I gonns try one of those
Cherry says
Hello Kuya Chef! It’s me again and would like to thank you! Can’t wait to try this tomorrow 🙂 -- From Canada
joyce says
you can also use ground chicken. if u want to reduce the oil in this soup, u can just boil the chicken stock, then add slices of ginger, the molo balls, some sliced molo wrapper (that’s the pancit part). when the balls float that’s a sgnal that it’s almost cooked. season with salt and pepper. you mayalso add chopped or sliced celery. then top with toasted garlic and chopped onion leaves. if u like a little oil, you may also add olive or sesame oil at the end. for variation, you may also add evap milk or table cream. my nanay taught me these as they used to make and sell molo soup for the cocheros of molo way back in the when she was single. this is good to make ahead of time and stored in the freezer..
mollyn tan bedia says
tnx,,,d best panset molo….very yami…
victoria says
thank you for this very tasty molo soup.
Ann says
By the way, for those of you who are still wondering why they call it Pansit Molo.. The Molo wrapper is the pansit. 🙂
Ann says
Another secret to a great tasting Pansit Molo is using shrimps with head instead of peeled shrimps. boil the shrimps separately, peel and set aside the broth (shrimp broth will be mixed in together with the chicken broth).
And it gives your soup the natural color you would attain by putting anatto seeds. Thus eliminating the need to use anatto seeds.
Panlasang Pinoy says
Gracie, sure you may.
Panlasang Pinoy says
Sure Ezer, you can always tailor this according to your preference.
ㅡ ㅡ says
um, it look so good
Dennis Tamidles says
Good day. Do you recipes on your web site that I can download just like a recipe card. Thanks and more power.
ayu says
thankx mr chef more power laking 2long samin ng pagtuturo mo!