Chef Nouveau

This recipe for chicken soup is easy and economical because you use one of those chickens from the supermarket that are pre-cooked/roasted. The idea is not to just buy the chicken for making the soup, but rather to buy it and use it for what ever you would buy a chicken for, (probably eating), and then make soup from the left overs.

I kind of made this one up one day when I was craving some chicken noodle soup and just happened to have a roasted chicken we bought from Safeway, (local supermarket), which I decided to throw into a pot and boil for a few hours to make soup stock. I wasn't sure if it would still have anything left in it after being roasted and all but it worked out just great. Now it's become a regular for me whenever I buy a roasted chicken.

The Broth/Stock

First thing I do when I get home from shopping with the bird is pick it all apart and throw all the bones and scraps into a pot. For me this includes the skin, bones, any fat that is easily removed and everything else that's left after I retreive all the meat for lunches, dinners, etc. Then I add:

about about 1/2 an onion cut up into chunks
1 teaspoon of salt
some pepper (1/2 teaspoon)
4 cups water or there abouts…

Put it on the stove and bring it to a boil, reduce heat and cover, let simmer for anywhere from 1 hour to 3 hours. Doesn't seem to make much difference. After that I strain it and add about 2 cups of water. If you want to freeze for use at another time, don't add the extra 2 cups of water.

The Soup
 

For the soup you are basically going to add some of the chicken meat that you got from the roasted chicken along with some thin egg noodles or spagettini type noodles.

1/2 - 1 cup of chicken cut into small pieces or cubes if you are fanatical
3/4 inch diameter of long noodles broken into 2 -3 inch pieces

Egg noodles such as oriental style wuntun seem to work best for me. They get nice and soft and absorb the flavor better than wheat pasta style noodles.

 

Just add the chicken pieces and noodles and simmer for about 20 minutes. Add salt or pepper as desired. It keeps well in the fridge for at least a week. Then you just need to nuke it in the microwave for a few minutes and you're good. I find this recipe tasted a lot like the Campbell's chicken noodle soup in a can. I love the taste of the Campbell's soup but I don't dig the MSG or the insane amount of sodium they put in it. I also like this method because it uses what otherwise would have gone to waste. Who knows, maybe it even helps cure the flu - read more on that here: http://www.cbc.ca/consumers/market/files/food/chickensoup/

Now eat it…