Chicken Noodle Soup

by admin

There are days when we need Chicken Noodle Soup to just soothe the soul. It could be for those rainy, cold days or those days when you feel miserable and want some comfort food – or it could be one of those Sunday night “I can’t be bothered cooking” kind of meals. Either way, Chicken Noodle Soup is an easy meal – serve it up with some hot crusty bread and a touch of parmesan cheese – ahhhhh – bliss!

This recipe is part of our “1 Chicken – 4 meals – 3 People” series

Ingredients

  • 1 whole large raw chicken carcass- breasts, thighs, legs and wings removed
  • half a bunch of celery
  • 4 carrots
  • 3 onions
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • angel hair noodles/pasta
  • salt and pepper to taste

Method

Grab a large saucepan. Chop up 1 onion, 2 carrots, and about half of the celery (including the head). You don’t need to dice these, you can just cut in half and put into the saucepan – we are making stock at this stage, so all the solid things will be tossed later. Add the chicken carcass, skin, salt, pepper, garlic and any other herbs you have handy which would be ok for the stock.  Add water to cover the carcass. Put on the stove on medium to low heat, put the lid on and let it cook for about 2-3 hours – the longer the better – keep the lid on to reduce loss of liquids.

chicken stock, chicken 4 ways, chicken cuts

Back to the stock – by now (about 2-3 hour later) the smell of the stock will be pretty pungent – take a peek at it – if you get strong wafts of flavour, its ready. Take it off the heat. Using tongs and a strainer, grab the vegetables and the carcass from the stock mix, put the carcass on a plate (you are going to pick off the scraps of meat). Toss the carrots, celery and onions (or set aside to make another batch of stock).  Strip the carcass of any spare meat and strain off the stock from the pot to catch any small bones or left over vegetables.
Return the stock to the saucepan, finely chop up the rest of the raw carrots, celery and onion. Add the spare cooked meat, raw vegetables, and crush up the angel hair pasta – add all of these to the pot and bring to the boil. Cook until the pasta is tender. You may need to add more salt and pepper at this stage – also add any other vegetables you like at this stage.  Once its cooked, remove from heat and cool.  Soup is ready!

Note – if you wanted to take the last of the vegetables and carcass one step further, you could make another lot of chicken stock from these ingredients before throwing them away. You may need to add more vegetables to get the flavours up. Stock is great to keep in the freezer for other dishes, and since you have made it from scratch it is so much yummier than powdered stock or pre-made – cheaper too!). You can use this stock to make more soup, risotto, sauces, casseroles, curries, etc.

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This post was posted in Chicken, Soup

Ham, Pea and Vegetable Soup

by admin

This would have to be one of the easiest and heartwarming soups to make. Cheap too – and have either as lunch or dinner on a cold winter’s day.

This is made in 2 steps in the pressure cooker.

Ingredients:

  • smoked ham hock (from butcher, supermarket or deli – use ham or bacon bones if not available – go whatever is cheapest)
  • 2 sticks celery
  • 2 brown onions
  • 1 cup dried green peas
  • 1 cup dried bortolli beans or dried soup mix
  • 1 large carrot
  • 4 cups chicken stock

Step 1:

In the pressure cooker, place ham hock, the heads of the celery sticks and 1 cup of stock, 1 cup of water. Run for a soup cycle.

Step 2:

Remove the ham hock from the cooker – remove all meat from the bone/s. Remove the celery from the stock in the cooker. Add back the chopped up meat, bones (yes, put them back in), chopped celery, onion, carrot, dried peas and beans, and the remainder of the stock.  Run for another soup cycle.

Remove bones.

Store in fridge.

Notes:

if the soup is too runny, add more beans and put on for another cycle. If soup is too thick, add more water.

admin

This post was posted in Soup

Chicken Stock

by admin

Once you have mastered how easy it is to make your own stock, you will never buy it again in a packet, powder or by any other means. If you need beef or fish stock, substitute the chicken.  For fish stock use fish bones, fish heads, prawn shells, prawn heads, crab shells (do not use oyster shells or the gut of fish).

Stock is one of those staple things that are easy, cheap, and useful – something you won’t throw out, and something that you make out of things you were going to throw out!

While a raw carcass is the ideal place to start, I have also successfully used the carcass from a barbecue chicken (obviously not if its been chewed on though).

Ingredients:

  • chicken bones (use carcasses, necks, or really cheap cuts)
  • 3 sticks celery (use the head, keep the stalks for something else)
  • 2 carrots
  • 1 brown onion
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • salt

Super easy to make – if you are using a saucepan, just toss it all into the saucepan, add water to cover the ingredients. Turn the heat to medium/low, put the lid on and let it cook.

 Once its done – about 2-3 hours on the stove – remove the solids from the stock (you can make a second batch if you want, just add more vegetables and put on again for a second batch).

Refrigerate/freeze.

What would I use this for?

admin

This post was posted in Odd Bits, Soup
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