Yesterday was cold, overcast, rainy………..the perfect day to stay in and put on a nice comforting warm pot of soup. I will not go through all the steps here but you can use my chicken wild rice soup as a guide, as I follow the usual method of starting with the ‘mire poix’ of onions, carrots, celery, adding garlic when veggies are softened. For this version of soup, I added mushrooms because I had some in the refrigerator that I did not want to go bad. I also added some leeks because I had some left over from the last batch of soup and I had too much so I rinsed and froze what I had leftover. Then for herbs/spices, I added thyme, fennel, salt, pepper, coriander, about 1 tsp of each (actually a palmful, which is how I measure for soup, things do not need to be exact by any means). Then in goes the stock or broth and it simmers.
Just before it is ready to be served, I add the noodles to cook them. I add the shredded or diced chicken at this point so it does not disintegrate in the soup (which I guess would be OK but I like the big chunks of chicken). A nice big handful of fresh chopped parsley adds that bit of brightness and freshness right before serving.
I usually buy a cooked rotisserie chicken from the store but they were out! And I was determined to have my soup so I bought a whole chicken and decided to roast it myself. This is so easy. You can just throw it on a roasting rack in a pan and cook at 450 deg for about 1.25 hrs. I just coat the skin with olive oil, salt and pepper and that’s it. Just check for doneness using an instant read thermometer, 165 deg and it is cooked. Then I put a foil tent over the whole chicken for about 15 min. I take all the chicken off the bone and add it to the soup, then I throw all the bones and skin in the other pot on my stove with all the carrot, celery and onion trimmings to make a chicken stock. So good. But since I didn’t have the benefit of the cooked rotisserie chicken, I did use store-bought broth this time for the noodle soup. Still amazing but if you can use homemade, all the better.
Notice the crackers at the top edge of this bowl. I made some cheddar crackers (like homemade cheez-its / cheddar shortbread / homemade croutons). Use the parmesean crackers recipe and just substitute cheddar for the parm. I omit the thyme and black pepper, adding cayenne pepper to taste depending on how much heat you like.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA———–MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZ———ING!
