Archives for October 2012

Back in February I posted a recipe for Herb Roasted Chicken.  I actually think it’s one of my funnier posts, but it’s also a really good recipe that I found on the Pioneer Woman’s Tasty Kitchen Blog.

The chicken turns out so flavorful and juicy!  It’s a “must try” dish and it’s easy but looks impressive for company.

Gotta love those :)

Well, at the end of the recipe I promised to follow up with directions for making chicken stock from the carcass.  But I never did.

Wah wah waaahh.

I guess it slipped my mind, but it shouldn’t have because I never make one of these cute little chickens without planning to make homemade chicken noodle soup from the remains.

Sure it’s easy to crack open a can of Campbell’s, but this soup is SO. MUCH. BETTER.

It simmers for a really long time on the stove, releasing flavors trapped deep within the bird.  Adding some carrots, celery and herbs takes the flavor to a whole other level.

Not to mention the homemade noodles.

YUM!

And they are really easy.

For real.

So, here we go.

First you should look up the Herb Roasted Chicken recipe from February and make it this week!  I mean how good does this look…

When you’ve finished eating your lovely roasted chicken dinner and separated out the leftover meat and veggies for another meal, take the carcass out of the pan and drop it into a gallon ziplock bag.

Toss it in the fridge and plan to use it for soup within the next 2 days or so.

When you’re ready to make the soup, just be sure to have some flour, eggs, carrots, celery, onions, garlic and a few hours at home.

You don’t need to do much once you get the chicken stock a brewin’ but you should plan to be home while it simmers.  Plus, you’ll want to be around to smell the delicious aroma!

Let’s get to the “official” recipe…

Chicken Soup with Homemade Noodles
by Rebecca Gould (and thousands of grandmothers before me)

 

Directions

In a large stock pot, add the chicken carcass and water.  Make sure that the water comes about 2 inches above the carcass.  You may need to add more water later if the simmering process reduces the liquid too much.  Just keep an eye on it.

Bring the carcass and water to a boil and then add your onion, garlic, celery, bay leaves and salt/pepper.  Boil for about 2 minutes and then reduce the heat to medium low.

Simmer on medium low for 4-6 hours.  This sounds long, but you can just go about your business and check in on the pot once in a while to make sure the liquid levels are OK.  I also like to give it a stir every hour or so.

You’ll probably see some foamy “gunk” form on the surface of the stock.  This is totally normal.  I just skim it off with a spoon or mesh strainer.

*You can make the stock ahead of time and refrigerate it.  If you do that, some of the fat from the bird will solidify.  Just skim that off the top before making your soup.  Like so…

This may look yucky, but don’t let it derail you from making the delicious soup!

OK, when the stock is done simmering, get out another large pot and set a colander in it.  Pour the carcass/stock mix into the colander.  All of the yummy stock will run through the colander into the new pot and you’ll be left with the chicken, bones and veggies in the colander.

Take a few minutes to pick through the carcass remains for nice chicken chunks.  Even if you cleaned your bird pretty well when you ate it for dinner, you should still come up with about a cup or so of light and dark chicken pieces.  Set these aside to make your soup.

Gather your carrots and celery and throw them into the stock.

Boil ’em up for about 8-10 minutes or until they are as tender as you like.  Then add the chicken pieces you recovered, and reduce the soup to low heat while you make your noodles.

In a medium mixing bowl, add 1 cup of all purpose flour.  Make a “well” in the middle and crack 2 eggs into it.

With a fork, break up the yolks and begin mixing the flour and eggs together.  It will be really sticky, but keep going.  Once the flour and eggs are decently incorporated, sprinkle some flour on a clean surface (counter or pastry mat).  Start kneading the dough by hand until you’re able to grab it all out of the bowl and set it onto your floured surface.

Knead it for a good 5 minutes, adding flour as needed to make it less sticky. Once it’s not sticky but is smooth and stretchy, pat it into a round ball and let it rest for a few minutes.

This is a good time to wash your doughy hands :)

Re-flour your surface, grab a rolling pin (sprinkle flour onto it too!) and roll the dough out as thin as you can.  The noodles will really really plump up when they cook, so get the dough nice and thin.

It may get so thin that you get holes in some spots.  That’s totally ok.  Don’t worry about patching them.

Now, grab a sharp knife and start cutting your sheet of dough into really thin strips.  I usually slice it all up and then run my knife the opposite direction to shorten my super long strands into about 2 or three sections. Really long noodles are hard to eat! :)

You could probably throw these right into your boiling stock to cook them, but I find that they absorb a bunch of the stock you worked so hard to make.  It’s best to boil these in a pot of plain, salted water and add them into the soup after they’re cooked.

They cook quick and usually only take about 2-3 minutes.  When they are done they will float to the top.  Drain them in a colander and add them to the soup by the bowlful.

*if you add all of the cooked noodles into the pot of soup, they will still soak up a bunch of stock, so I always scoop some noodles into a bowl and cover them with the soup.  I also store the noodles separate from the soup for this reason.

There you have it!  Delicious, homemade chicken noodle soup.

Get yourself a chicken this week and use these recipes to get two dinners out of it :)

If you have any questions, leave them in the comments and I’ll answer them!