Sunday, September 20, 2009

who needs penicillin…

… when you have homemade chicken noodle soup? Well, plus, I think it is a VIRUS that is currently RAGING its way through my sleep-deprived system (you know the feeling, when you lie down in bed and feel that telltale tickle/itch at the back of your throat and you go “nooooooooooooooooooooooo I’m sick!” I had that last night), so antibiotics would be inappropriate anyway. So I made this:

DSCF2192 

The star of this soup was definitely the homemade stock, which I made from the mass of vegetable trimmings I had accumulated in my freezer. This batch was mostly carrot, pepper, and squash tops and a big ol’ cauliflower core. I covered all of them with water, brought to a boil, and let it simmer for about two hours.

Then I put some of the stock to freeze, and the rest I turned into this soup. Portioning the stock out allowed it to cool down, so I added my raw, bite-sized chicken pieces to the lukewarm stock and then heated it slowly (I find it makes for less rubbery poached chicken). Then I took those out, brought it to a full on boil, and cooked my veggies and chicken in it. Remove from heat, return chicken, eat.

DSCF2193

This was one of the best batches I’ve had in awhile. The whole wheat noodles actually make for TASTY soup! And the curative properties of chicken soup have been well documented.

And now I’m going to leave my apartment. Because I haven’t. ALL DAY!

5 comments:

Linda said...

Sorry, can you explain your tip for poaching the chicken again. You put raw bits of chicken in the stock and let it simmer for a while, and then removed the chicken to let the stock go to a full boil?

I live in northern California, and it's unseasonably crazy hot here (90+ degrees). I can't wait until the temps drop so that I can make this soup!

Lele said...

Linda-

I made the stock by boiling all the veggie trimmings for a few hours, like I said. Then I strained out the veggie bits, and divided up the stock; some for today's soup, some for later. While this happened, the stock cooled down.
I put chicken tenders into the stock as I reheated it.
As it neared a boil, I took them out (so they wouldn't get rubbery).
Then I shredded them.
Meanwhile, I boiled everything else (the noodles and veggies) in the stock. When the noodles and veggies were done, I took the soup off of the heat and added the chicken.
Basically, my method behind this was to keep the chicken from ever being in boiling liquid!
Hope that helps! This soup was great. It actually wasn't that cold today even here in Boston, but there's something about hot soup for a sore throat!

Erika said...

Ooh, hope you don't get anything too bad! Chicken soup is such a great cure and I love the idea of whole wheat noodles.

Astra Libris said...

I hope you feel better soon! Poor you! Viruses are no fun! Sending big get well soon hugs!

I am SO impressed that not only did you make this gorgeous chicken soup while you were under the weather, but you made homemade stock too! You're incredible!

Linda said...

Thanks Lele! Now, I know how to avoid rubbery poached chicken!