Taiwanese Meat Soup – Rou Geng Tong

December 4, 2020Mrs. Lin's Kitchen
taiwanese meat soup rou geng tong

Today’s recipe is another signature Taiwanese dish called Rou Geng Tong or Taiwanese meat soup. In Taiwan, this soup is just as popular as Lu Rou Fan. And you can find it at many places like street vendors, night markets or restaurants.

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Rou means meat, Geng is thicken soup and Tong is also soup. Taiwanese meat soup is also called Rou Gen or Bah Gee in Taiwanese. Roy Geng Tong or Taiwanese meat soup doesn’t require any advanced cooking technique but the preparation can take quite some time because meat nugget is needed for this recipe.

This is one of those dishes that every family has a slightly different version. Like always, this recipe I share with you today is what I learn from my mom.

Taiwanese Meat Soup Ingredients

taiwanese meat soup

Meat Nuggets

taiwanese meat soup
  • ½ lb pork leg meat or chicken thigh
  • ½ lb fish paste
  • ½ tbsp of soy sauce
  • ½ tbsp of rice wine
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 5-6 slices of ginger

Traditionally pork leg is used for making meat nuggets. For people who don’t eat pork, you can substitute it with chicken thigh. With the fish paste, you can find it at an Asian supermarket like Ranch 99.

Soup

  • 12 fish/meat nuggets
  • 4 Chinese cabbage leaves (4 cups)
  • 1 small carrot (1 cup)
  • 7 cups of soup stock
  • 2-3 dried shiitake mushrooms
  • 4 tbsp of corn starch
  • Salt
  • Cilantro
  • Black vinegar

For the soup stock, you can use store bought chicken soup or you can check out this video for my easy homemade chicken soup stock.

Instead of napa cabbage, bamboo shoots can be used as well. Enoki mushroom is also a good addition to this soup.

Taiwanese Meat Soup – Rou Geng Tong Recipe

taiwanese meat soup

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Taiwanese Meat Soup

Ingredients

Meat Nuggets

  • 1/2 lb leg meat or chicken thigh
  • 1/2 lb fish paste
  • 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1/2 tbsp rice wine
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 5-6 slices ginger

Soup

  • 12 fish/meat nuggets
  • 4 Chinese cabbage leaves , 4 cups
  • 1 small carrot , 1 cup
  • 7 cups soup stock
  • 2-3 dried shiitake mushrooms
  • 4 tbsp corn starch
  • Salt
  • Cilantro
  • Black vinegar

Method

Making Meat Nuggets

  • 1)

    Thinly slice 2 cloves of garlic
    Julienne 5 to 6 slices of ginger

  • 2)

    Cut the pork into short stripes, about 1-1/2 inches long and ¼ inch wide. Make sure to cut against the grain.

  • 3)

    To marinate the pork, add the ginger and garlic slices from 2 cloves of garlic. Then add ½ tbsp of soy sauce and 1/2 tbsp of rice wine. Mix well and let it marinate for at least 2-3 hours. The meat will be more flavorful if you marinate it overnight. If you don’t eat pork, use chicken. Prepare ginger, garlic, and chicken the same way as the pork

  • 4)

    After the meat has been marinated, take out all the ginger and garlic

  • 5)

    Add ½ lb of fish paste into the pork stripe and mix well. Make sure the fish paste fully coats each pork stripe. Do the same for the chicken.

  • 6)

    Bring a pot of water to a boil, and then add in the meat nuggets. Add them one by one so they won’t stick together. The meat nuggets that float on the surface are ready. You can take them out. Save the water that boils the meat nugget and use it as soup stock when making the meat soup later.

Prepare the Soup

  • 1)

    Soak the shiitake mushroom for 30 minutes. Next, squeeze out the juice and thinly slice them. You can save the juice for the soup stock later.

  • 2)

    Thinly slice the carrot and cabbage into ¼ “ stripes

  • 3)

    Chop the cilantro. This will be used as a garnish when you serve your soup.

  • 4)

    In a large pan, heat up a tiny bit of oil and sauté the mushroom with 1 tsp of soy sauce until it’s fragrant.

  • 5)

    Next, add 7 cups of soup stock to the pan. You can use the combination of the mushroom juice we saved earlier, the water that boils the meat nugget, or homemade chicken soup stock. If you don’t have any of the above, the store-bought chicken soup stock will do the job, too. Bring everything to a boil

  • 6)

    When the soup starts to boil, add sliced cabbage and carrot. Cook for about 3 to 4 minutes on medium-high heat

  • 7)

    Next, add the meat nuggets.

  • 8)

    Mix 4 tbsp of corn starch with 4 tbsp of water and pour it into the soup. Stir well. The corn starch will thicken the soup.

  • 9)

    Bring everything to a boil again.

  • 10)

    Lastly, add 1 to 1-1/2 tsp of salt

Serve

  • 1)

    To serve the soup by itself, add 1 tbsp of black vinegar to a single serving bowl. Pour the soup over. And top it off with cilantro and white pepper.

  • 2)

    To make Roy Geng Tong noodle, put some noodle into a large bowl. Add 1 tbsp of black vinegar. Pour the soup over and, finally garnish with cilantro and white pepper.

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