IN THE POT | CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP
Both HUBBY and I have been battling with colds this week. I had it at the start of the week and now HUBBY has a version of it (only worse cause his is a man cold).
At the beginning of the week I really wanted to make this recipe because for some strange reason when I get sickly I like to have chicken soup. In my haze of snot and cold medication I put together the shopping list, dragged my arse to the store and started getting the ingredients together.
As I wander around Woolworths I ended up in the poultry section looking for 1.6kg of chicken. I couldn’t help but wonder why I needed so much chicken breast. But I still put three packets of chook boob in my trolley and wondered off to buy more tissues.
I got home, unpacked everything and got ready to cook some restorative chicken soup.
Time to consult the recipe….
Ah crap sticks!
Turns out that I read “1.6kg chicken” as “1.6kg chicken breast”. Seems my aversion to roasting a chicken has now affected my ability to read. I swear I read the recipe before I headed to the shops and it still didn’t twig that I needed a chook, not boob.
Needless to say we didn’t have chicken noodle soup on Tuesday night. But we have been eating a lot of chicken based dishes because we have nearly 2kgs of chicken breast to use!
So Friday night with HUBBY now laboring under the affects of man flu I decided to get my hands on a chicken and make the soup.
HUBBY picked up the chook this time, lest my subconscious take over again and I come home with 2kg chicken drumsticks.
This time I was determined not to let the chicken best me. HUBBY had the oven at the right temperature by the time I got home from work and I put the chook in to bake.
40 minutes into the roasting I decided to check on the chook and rotate it. You see, I’ve had this genius idea. Roast chooks in take outs are always rotating so that’s what I need to do with my own chook.
The top was looking awesome so I turned the beast upside down and put it back in.
20 minutes later I went back to check on it. It looked done. I took it out, turned the oven off and cut into the chicken.
Blood.
Ah crap sticks!
Turns out the bird hadn’t had long enough in the oven. Because the bird didn’t need to be on display I made incisions into the thicker parts of the chook and freed up the legs and wings. Whacked it back into the oven and walked away.
20 minutes later the chook was cooked through and ready to go into the soup pot. From here on out the recipe was fairly easy to follow. I had subdued the beast and she went into the pot and added all her goodness to the stock.
Once again however I was punished for getting cocky. When I took the chook out of the saucepan I turned it a little too vertical and hot water and juices ran out of the chook cavity and on to my hand. So in it’s last valiant attempt to foil me the chook burnt my hand.
Learn from my mistakes; becareful when removing the chicken from the stock!
I sliced and diced, put it all back together in the pot and eagerly awaited some chicken soup goodness.
The end product wasn’t too bad. It was chicken flavoured enough to have my cold in retreat. I’m not sure I’ll rush out and make it again, but I’m glad that I’ve had a better run this time at roasting a chicken. I’m still not at the stage where I’d roast a chook for dinner guests, but I’m slowly getting there…
Image source: GnomeAngel
Chicken Noodle Soup
1.6kg (3¼ lb) chicken
11 cups (4½ pints) water
1 stick celery, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
1½ cups macaroni or short soup noodles
2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley
sea salt and cracked black pepper
1. Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F). Place the chicken on a greased rack in a backing dish, prick the skin all over and bake for 1 hour or until golden brown.
2. Bring the water to the boil in a large saucepan over high heat with the lid on. Transfer the whole cooked chicken to the saucepan and add the celery, carrot and onion. Cover and cook for 15 minutes.
3. Remove the chicken from the pan and allow to cool slightly. Remove and discard the skin, then remove the meat from the bones and chop. Skim any fat from the top of the stock, then strain the liquid and return to the pan.
4. Place the chopped chicken meat and macaroni in the pan and cook for 12 minutes or until the pasta is soft.
5. Stir through the parsley, pepper and plenty of salt, ladle into bowls and serve with toasted bread.
Serves: 4
Source: Source: Donna Hay; Modern Classics Book 1
