Farmhouse Chicken Noodle Soup
A whole chicken poached into its own stock, then shredded back in. The noodles cook separately and that is not fussiness.
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 1 hr 30 min
- Makes
- Serves 8
The difference between chicken noodle soup that tastes of chicken and soup that tastes of stock cubes is that you poach a whole bird and use the liquid. It takes ninety minutes, almost all of it unattended, and it produces both the meat and the broth at once.
Keep it below a boil. A rolling boil emulsifies the fat into the liquid and turns a clear golden broth cloudy and slightly greasy — once that happens there is no getting it back. You want the surface barely trembling, the occasional bubble breaking. That is around 85°C.
The noodles cook in a separate pan of salted water. This looks like extra washing up and it is, but noodles cooked in the soup release starch that clouds the broth and thickens it, and any leftovers turn into a solid mass of swollen pasta overnight. Cooked separately and added to the bowl, the soup keeps four days and the second bowl is as good as the first.
Skim the surface for the first ten minutes. What rises then is protein scum, and leaving it in makes the broth murky.
The same separate-pan rule applies to tortellini soup and gnocchi soup, where the pasta swells even faster.
Chicken noodle soup, printed
A whole chicken poached into its own stock, then shredded back in. The noodles cook separately and that is not fussiness.
For the broth, and to finish
For the broth
- 1 whole chicken, about 3½ lb (1.6 kg)
- 3 liters (12 cups) cold water
- 2 onions, halved
- 3 carrots, halved
- 3 celery sticks, halved
- 1 head of garlic, halved crossways
- 2 bay leaves
- 10 black peppercorns
- Small bunch of parsley stalks
To finish
- 3 carrots, sliced into coins
- 3 celery sticks, sliced
- 9 oz (250 g) egg noodles
- Juice of ½ lemon
- Chopped dill and parsley
- Salt and black pepper
Poaching the bird, then building the bowl
- 1 Put the chicken in a large pot and cover with the cold water. Starting cold, not hot, draws more flavor out of the bird.
- 2 Bring it slowly to a bare simmer and skim the gray foam off the surface for the first 10 minutes.
- 3 Add the halved vegetables, garlic, bay, peppercorns and parsley stalks. Keep it barely trembling — never boiling — for 75 minutes.
- 4 Lift out the chicken and strain the broth, discarding the spent vegetables. They have given everything they have.
- 5 Return the broth to the pot with the fresh sliced carrot and celery and simmer 10 minutes until just tender.
- 6 Meanwhile cook the noodles in a separate pan of salted water and drain them.
- 7 Shred the chicken meat off the bones and return it to the pot. Off the heat, add the lemon juice and herbs, and season properly — broth needs more salt than you expect.
- 8 Put noodles in each bowl and ladle the soup over.
A second stock, and freezing
- The carcass makes a second, lighter stock. Cover it with water again and simmer another two hours.
- The broth freezes for three months. Freeze it without noodles or vegetables.
Cloudy broth and swollen noodles
They release starch that clouds the broth, and they keep absorbing liquid in the fridge until the leftovers are a solid block. Separate pan, added per bowl.
It boiled. Above a gentle simmer the fat emulsifies into the liquid and it will not clear again. Keep it at a tremble.
More noodle soup
Creamy Spinach Tortellini Soup
Twenty-five minutes, one pot. The cream goes in off the heat and the tortellini go in last.
- Total time
- 35 min
- Yield
- Serves 6
Wild Rice Soup
Creamy, mushroomy and thick with grain. The wild rice cooks separately because it takes three times as long as anything else.
- Total time
- 1 hr
- Yield
- Serves 6
Crock Pot Gnocchi Soup
Sausage, spinach and a cream broth built over four hours. The gnocchi go in for the last thirty minutes.
- Total time
- 4 hr 45 min
- Yield
- Serves 6