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| Chicken Noodle Soup |
Oh, will the rain EVER end? When I'm driving home from work and I can't hardly see out of the windshield because it's raining so hard, all I can think about making for dinner is a pot of warm, comforting soup!
Today, the mood seem to be homemade chicken noodle soup for me and the little ones...
Now you can go about this in a number of ways. Optimally, you would cover all the raw chicken pieces (bones, skin and all) with water, add vegetables, and simmer to make a nice rich stock for a couple of hours. Or.... as a busy mom or dad, you can take the liberties of using some modern day shortcuts. Tonight was all about those shortcuts.
Step-by-Step:
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| Chicken stock "cubes" |
This step is both a time saver and a huge money saver. Who doesn't like that?!
- When you pick up a rotisserie chicken from the supermarket (and don't we all?) and you've removed all of the meat, throw the carcass into a big pot, cover with water, add some seasoning (salt, pepper, an onion, celery, carrot, poultry seasoning.... really it can be whatever you want), and let it boil for an hour or two. The marrow from the bones and the seasoning from the skin, meat, etc will condense and give you a lovely chicken stock.
- After the stock is made, pour them into ice cube trays (these are the silicone ones that I picked up at Bed, Bath, and Beyond) and freeze them.
- You can pop them out easily and store the frozen stock cubes in a gallon sized zip top bag. The next time you need chicken broth/stock, you have a rich homemade version on hand for free! You already paid for the chicken, so you may as well stretch that investment a bit.
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| Let your helper pull the chicken apart... there is no right or wrong way, and they start snacking on something healthy, so you can't really lose here! |
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| Throw a bunch of stock "cubes" into the pot. |
- Tonight, I was home alone with the two little ones, so we didn't need a "big" pot of soup.
- So... if you don't have your own stock cubes, open a box or can of chicken stock or broth. Since you aren't starting with a raw chicken, we need to start with some flavor. The stock will make it taste like we've worked on this for hours.
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| The bones and yucky stuff left over after the meat has been pulled off. |
Okay, I know this looks gross, but this is where most of your flavor comes from!
Throw all the bones, skin, etc into the stock.
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| The rest of our soup base |
To the broth, add the bones, some celery, carrots, some thyme, salt and pepper.
Add some more water (maybe just enough to cover) and let it boil for a while.
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| The rotisserie (cheater) chicken. |
For a small pot of soup, I only use about 1/2 of the chicken.
The rest of the chicken gets popped into a freezer bag and labeled for another use later. (We're really getting a lot of mileage out of the $5 chicken, huh?)
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| Removing the stock ingredients. |
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| The final broth for the soup. |
See what a wonderful, rich soup base we have now?
If you want a single serving, etc., freeze some of the broth at this point - before adding the noodles. Then later, you only have to thaw and add noodles for homemade goodness.
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| Egg noodles... it IS chicken noodle, after all. |
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| The final soup. Isn't it beautiful?! |
Now I think at this point, you HAVE to agree that this looks 1000 times better than chicken noodle out of a can!
Oh, I guess you can see that I fished the baby carrot pieces out of the "seasoning" pile and threw them back in there. It needs a little color, and my daughter loves these.
Now for the garnish. (optional, of course!)
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| A short stack of corn tortillas |
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| ... cut the stack into ribbons |
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| Cut the ribbons into whatever shapes or sizes you prefer. |
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Frying the tortilla ribbons |
I used only about 1/2 inch of canola oil for this. Don't overcrowd the pan - it will bring down the temperature too much.
Fry at around 250 - 300 degrees. If you don't have a candy thermometer, just test the oil out with the edge of one of the ribbons. It should start sizzling IMMEDIATELY. If it doesn't, the oil is not hot enough. This would be bad, because they would end up soggy and greasy from absorbing the oil.
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| Fried tortilla ribbons. |
Remove them from the pan when brown with the spider or a slotted spoon.
Sprinkle immediately with a little salt.
Resist the urge to eat half a plate of them while frying more.
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| Pan Roasted Corn. |
- I drained some sweet corn nibletts.
- Added about 1/2 Tbsp butter to the skillet and dumped about half a can in.
- I seasoned with a little cumin for a smoky flavor and roasted them in the pan until slightly charred.
To serve, I added a small pile of tortilla ribbons on top of the soup and sprinkled with the pan roasted corn.
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| Ta da! |
Now doesn't that warm up a rainy afternoon?
Written Method:This step is both a time saver and a huge money saver: When you pick up a rotisserie chicken from the supermarket (and don't we all?) and you've removed all of the meat, throw the carcass into a big pot, cover with water, add some seasoning (salt, pepper, an onion, celery, carrot, poultry seasoning.... really it can be whatever you want), and let it boil for an hour or two. The marrow from the bones and the seasoning from the skin, meat, etc will condense and give you a lovely chicken stock. After the stock is made, pour them into ice cube trays and freeze them. You can pop them out easily and store the frozen stock cubes in a gallon sized zip top bag. The next time you need chicken broth/stock, you have a rich homemade version on hand for free! You already paid for the chicken, so you may as well stretch that investment a bit.
So... if you don't have your own stock cubes, open a box or can of chicken stock or broth. Since you aren't starting with a raw chicken, we need to start with some flavor. The stock will make it taste like we've worked on this for hours. To the broth, add the bones, some celery, carrots, some thyme, salt and pepper. Add some more water (maybe just enough to cover) and let it boil for a while.
For a small pot of soup, I only use about 1/2 of the chicken. The rest of the chicken gets popped into a freezer bag and labeled for another use later. After the broth has condensed and is rich and flavorful, remove all the skin, bones, and seasoning. I added maybe two handfuls of noodles. I threw a handful of baby carrot pieces back in there. It needs a little color.
Garnish with fried tortilla strips if desired: I used about 1/2 inch of canola oil for this. Don't overcrowd the pan - it will bring down the temperature too much. Fry corn tortilla strips around 300 degrees. If you don't have a candy thermometer, just test the oil out with the edge of one of the ribbons. It should start sizzling IMMEDIATELY. If it doesn't, the oil is not hot enough. This would be bad, because they would end up soggy and greasy from absorbing the oil. Remove them from the pan when brown with the spider or a slotted spoon. Sprinkle immediately with a little salt.
I drained some sweet corn niblets, then added about 1/2 Tbsp butter to the skillet and dumped about half a can in. I seasoned with a little cumin for a smoky flavor and roasted them in the pan until slightly charred. To serve, I added a small pile of tortilla ribbons on top of the soup and sprinkled with the pan roasted corn.
Want more great recipes?Please visit my Recipe Index for tons of ideas that you can cook with/for you family! Here are a few to get you started:
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