The Best, Easiest, Quickest Chicken Noodle Soup Ever

There are few things I love as much in the cold heart of winter as a bowl of chicken noodle soup.  I'm most definitely not talking about the one in the can.  I'm talking about soup in a rich, flavorful broth with chunks of roasted chicken, freshly chopped tender pieces of carrot and celery, bow-tie noodles soaking up the chicken taste and fresh parsley and thyme floating throughout the whole thing.

Sounds long and involved and exhausting, right?  Well, usually that is right.  What usually happens is that you start out with all great intentions and energy and a nice whole chicken.  You toss it in the soup pot with some water and a prayer or two, and hours and days and weeks later you have a cooked chicken and some "broth."  But the chicken is a little rubbery from having boiled away for ages and I'm sorry, all the onion and carrots in the world have not been able to produce a nice rich broth  -- for me, anyway.  It ends up watery and sad and you have to skim the top of it, and on and on and on.  

It was time for something to be done.  It's our right to have a fantastic chicken soup that doesn't require a nap and a degree from the Culinary Institute of America.  So here's what needs to happen.  First of all, the foundation is the broth, and while pre-made chicken broth used to be a sad state of affairs, things have gotten a whole lot better lately.  There are two brands that are actually EXCELLENT, and they both come in boxes that are stacked in the supermarket right next to those nasty cans of chicken broth.  My fave is this one:

Although this one is pretty good as well:

 

Don't be tempted by the canned broth - go for one of these guys.

Next, you need a bone-in split chicken breast.  Put in in a baking pan, brush that baby with a little olive oil, sprinkle with some salt and pepper and roast it for about 50 minutes.  Meantime, chop up some carrots, some celery, an onion and some fresh parsley and thyme.  If I have a leek on hand I'll chop that up too.  Once your chicken is roasted and cooled a little, the chicken soup is about 20 minutes away.  Bring the broth to a nice simmer and drop in the veggies and some bow-tie pasta and simmer it covered until the veggies are tender and the pasta is cooked.  While this is going on, take a fork (or your fingers, if you are me) and pull the roasted chicken off the bone into bite-sized pieces.  Now toss the chicken pieces and the herbs into the soup and simmer for another few minutes until everything is all warm and perfect.  Taste to see if you need to add in any salt or pepper...and that's it, folks.  You have now made the perfect chicken noodle soup.  It will keep for several days and get better and better.  If it gets too thick, pour in a little more broth and it will be just fine.

Doesn't everything seem right with the world now?

Quick and Easy Chicken Noodle Soup

• 1 split bone-in chicken breast
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• Two 32 ounce boxes of chicken broth
• Two large carrots, sliced
• Two stalks celery, sliced
• One leek, sliced or one onion, chopped
• 1 cup bow tie pasta
• 1/2 cup fresh chopped parsley
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 375.  Place chicken skin side up on baking sheet lined with foil.  Rub olive oil onto chicken and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Roast for 50 minutes and then cool until chicken is cool enough to shred with your fingers.  Discard bones and skin.

2. Heat broth until simmering.  Add carrots, celery, leek or onion and pasta and cook until pasta is done, about 10 minutes.

3. Stir in parsley and chicken and season to taste.  Ladle into bowls and serve.

Click here for printable recipe

Sesame Noodles with Cucumber Cashew Salad

I can't remember the first time I discovered soba noodles, but once I did I kinda felt like I had won the food lottery. Soba noodles are made of buckwheat, and addition to being really, really tasty, they are actually pretty good for you, as far as pasta goes. And when you pair them with a scrumptious sauce and nestle a delicious cucumber cashew salad next to them...well, it's a good day when you can say you are having a super-delicious dinner and being virtuously healthy all at the same time. Right?

This quick cold noodle salad is another one from my week-long celebration of one of my new favorite cookbooks, STONEWALL KITCHEN FAVORITES, and if you haven't yet entered the giveaway for a signed copy of this fantastic book, click here. In the meantime, here's the scoop on this salad. The sauce is a speedy combo of garlic, ginger, scallions, tahini, chili paste, soy sauce and my personal favorite kitchen ingredient, peanut butter. You thin it down a little with some hot water from the cooking pasta, toss in some cilantro if you are a cilantro person, and that's it. The salad is a simple combo of chopped cucumber and cashews tossed with sesame oil and white vinegar with a little ground pepper.

All these exotic ingredients can usually be found in any decent supermarket. If you absolutely can't find soba noodles anywhere (and I promise you that Amazon will have them!), you can sub in linguine. You just won't get to feel as completely virtuous. All of this wonderfulness is fabulous on its own, and also the perfect accompaniment to grilled steak or chicken or fish.

Here's the delish recipe, and don't forget to enter the giveaway!

Sesame Noodles with Cucumber Cashew Salad, from Stonewall Kitchen Favorites

# minced garlic cloves
3 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
4 scallions, thinly sliced
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup tahini
2 teaspoons chili paste
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup minced cilantro
1 eight ounce package soba noodles (or linguine)
Sesame seeds for garnish

1 seedless cucumber, chopped
3/5 cup coarsely chopped cashews
2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons rice or white wine vinegar
Fresh ground pepper

1. Bring large pot of lightly salted water to a boil.

2. In a large bowl, mix garlic, ginger and scallions. Mix in peanut butter and tahini. Add chili paste and soy sauce and stir well. Add 1/2 cup hot water from the pot and stir into sauce. Add cilantro.

3. Make salad by mixing cucumber, cashews, sesame oil and vinegar in a separate small bowl. Set aside.

4. Add noodles to boiling water and cook until just tender. Drain and run under cold water until cool. Drain again and toss with sauce until well-coated. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Serve with cucumber salad on the side.

Click here for printable recipe

Shredded Chicken with Noodles

This is one of those recipes that falls squarely in the comfort food category. There is something warm and cozy about shredded chicken with noodles and carrots in a delicious sauce that makes you feel like pretty much everything is right with the world. It also features turmeric, a spice that doesn't get anywhere near its fair share of love and respect, at least in MY spice cabinet.

Speaking of spice cabinets (and yes, mine IS in alphabetical order, and I am not ashamed to admit it), the absolute best place in the whole wide world to buy spices is this little outfit called Penzey's. Here's a link:

Penzey's Catalog

I am lucky enough to have a Penzey's in my area (that area being Grand Central Station in NYC) and take a look at this:

...and this....

....and this...

...and don't even get me started on what it smells like in that place. Spice Heaven.

Anyway, turmeric...it's one of the things that makes this recipe from the Pioneer Woman so fabulous. That and the shredded chicken part. There is something about shredded chicken that just does me in, and makes me think about warm blankets and children's books and raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens.

One word about the noodles - the original recipe calls for using pre-cooked frozen noodles and believe me, I would have used them if I had been able to find them. But I wasn't able to, so I just tossed some garden variety egg noodles in there and they worked just fine. Probably due to the previously mentioned shredded chicken and turmeric. One way or the other, the next time you need a good dose of Extreme Comfort Food, this is your recipe.

Shredded Chicken with Noodles, from The Pioneer Woman

1 whole Cut Up Fryer Chicken
2 whole Carrots, Diced
2 stalks Celery, Diced
½ whole Medium Onion, Diced
1 teaspoon Salt
½ teaspoons Turmeric
¼ teaspoons White Pepper (more To Taste)
¼ teaspoons Ground Thyme
2 teaspoons Parsley Flakes
16 ounces, weight Frozen "homemade" Egg Noodles or same amount dried large egg noodles
3 Tablespoons All-purpose Flour

1. Cover chicken in 4 quarts water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Simmer for 30 minutes.

2. Remove chicken from pot with a slotted spoon. With two forks, remove as much meat from the bones as you can, slightly shredding meat in the process. Return bones to broth and simmer on low, covered, for 45 minutes.

3. Remove bones from broth with a slotted spoon, making sure to get any small bones that might have detached. Add the carrots and celery and onions to the pot, followed by the herbs and spices. Stir to combine and simmer for ten minutes to meld flavors.

4. Increase heat and add egg noodles and chicken. Cook for 8 to 10 minutes.

5. Mix flour and a little water. Stir until smooth. Pour into soup, stir to combine, and simmer for another 5 minutes, or until broth thickens a bit. Test and adjust seasonings as needed.

Click here for printable recipe

Mediterranean Tuna Casserole

Okay, so this is NOT your grandmother's tuna casserole. Yes, there is tuna, and yes, there are noodles. But there are also artichoke hearts and there is also feta cheese, and there is absolutely no cream-of-anything soup. The teenager still ran screaming from the room, but the Southern husband and I loved it.

You really must use tuna packed in oil for this one. I think we have all been so brainwashed into using the packed in water variety that you now have to look hard for the packed in oil kind, but it really does make a big difference. (It's also great in this recipe for tuna salad, by the way.) The packed in oil kind has a rich, delicious flavor that the water kind just doesn't have. In this recipe it blends with the feta cheese and the artichokes to give it a little bit of an exotic Greek flavor.

So the next time you get that longing for a warm, comforting tuna casserole (and don't we all get those?), give this one a try. It makes great leftovers, too.

MEDITERRANEAN TUNA CASSEROLE, adapted from Everyday Food

• 1/3 cup olive oil, plus more for baking dishes
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1 pound wide egg noodles
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 5 cups whole milk
• 4 cans (6 ounces each) tuna in olive oil, drained
• 1 can (14 ounces) artichoke hearts, drained and thickly sliced
• 5 scallions, thinly sliced
• 4 ounces feta cheese
  
• 1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly oil two 8-inch square (or other shallow 2-quart) baking dishes. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook noodles until 2 minutes short of al dente; drain, and return to pot.
2. Meanwhile, in a 5-quart Dutch oven or heavy pot, heat oil over medium. Add flour and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Gradually add milk, stirring until smooth. Cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture comes to a simmer.
3. Remove from heat; add mixture to noodles in pot, along with tuna, artichoke hearts, feta cheese and scallions. Season with salt and pepper, and toss. Divide between prepared baking dishes, and sprinkle with Parmesan. Bake until golden and bubbling, about 20 minutes.

Click here for printable recipe

Teriyaki Steak and Sesame Noodles

Just in time for the holidays, I have a great recipe and an equally great cookbook to give away! Those of you who read my post on Pork Dumplings with Chili Sauce know that I am a big fan of Jaden Hair and her Steamy Kitchen blog. Jaden is an amazing cook, an incredibly talented photographer, a really nice person, and the author of THE STEAMY KITCHEN COOKBOOK, which is where I got the recipe for the teriyaki steak that you see above. This cookbook is jam-packed with fabulous-looking recipes that I am going to work my way through...just as soon as I get it back from my mom, who took one look at it on my kitchen counter and borrowed it.

But not before I had made this rocking good steak, which is marinated in a balsamic teriyaki sauce that is Out Of This World. Jaden makes it with a skirt steak, but says you can use the steak of your choice, so I took her at her word and used my all-time favorite cut for grilling: the flank steak. The Southern husband and I made the teriyaki sauce the night before and marinated that bad boy overnight until it was good and soaked in that amazing marinade. By the time dinnertime rolled around, there was nothing left to do but grill the steak and heat up some reserved marinade to drizzle over the steak.

Along the way, it occurred to me that the perfect accompaniment to this fantastic steak would be the Pioneer Woman's Sesame Noodles, which I have now made about one million times. And they were indeed perfect! Which brought all of this full circle, because those sesame noodles were the topic of my first cookbook giveaway...that one is over, but now I have a copy of Jaden's beautiful cookbook to give away next!

So here's what I need: leave a comment at the bottom of this post telling me your favorite food blog, and that will enter you into a random drawing for a copy of THE STEAMY KITCHEN COOKBOOK. (For my peeps who subscribe on email -- click on the recipe title up top and it will take you to the web page where you can comment. I love you guys!!) It is a perfect holiday gift...if you can bear to part with it, that is! I will announce the lucky winner at 7pm on Saturday, December 5. And in the meantime, give this scrumptious teriyaki steak a try, and visit one of MY favorite food blogs, Steamy Kitchen!

**THANKS EVERYONE -- Contest is now over, but please look for the next cookbook giveaway, coming your way soon!**

GRILLED STEAK WITH BALSAMIC TERIYAKI, from The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook

• 1 pound skirt steak, or steak of your choice
• 2 tablespoons cooking oil
• 1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 minced shallot
• 2 minced cloves garlic
• 1 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1/4 cup beef, chicken or vegetable stock
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon mirin (sweet rice wine)

1. To make the teriyaki sauce, melt the butter in a saucepot over medium low heat. When it starts to bubble, add the shallots and garlic and cook for 3 minutes or until soft, watching to make sure they don't burn.

2. Pour in the vinegar and bring to a boil. Turn heat down to medium low and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes or until reduced by half. It should be thick, glossy and coat the back of a spoon.

3. Add the sugar, stock, soy sauce and mirin, stir well and bring back to a boil. Then turn the heat down to low and simmer for 5 minutes. Let cool and reserve 1/2 cup sauce for marinating and 1/4 cup for serving.

4. Place the steak and 1/2 cup sauce into a large sealable plastic bag. Marinate 2 hours or overnight in the refrigerator.

5. Thirty minutes before grilling, remove the steak from the fridge and let it sit at room temperature. Discard the marinade and pat the steak very dry with paper towels.

6. Preheat grill to high, or set a large frying pan over high heat on the stove and add oil when very hot.

7. Grill steak for 3-5 minutes on each side for medium rare. Let steak rest for 5 minutes and the slice across the grain. Serve with reserved 1/4 cup marinade to pour over the meat.

Click here for printable recipe

Sesame Noodles and a Cookbook Contest!

First of all, for those of you eager to get to the contest, you might as well scroll right down to the middle of this post and look at the cover of the gorgeous new cookbook by Ree Drummond, aka The Pioneer Woman.

But before I get into the contest details, I would like to submit this post as Exhibit A in my ongoing quest to do absolutely everything that the Pioneer Woman tells me to do. For those of you who don't know who she is, the Pioneer Woman writes the blog that all of us cooks/photographers/foodbloggers/dog-lovers aspire to. If you haven't visited her website yet, you are missing OUT. Not that she needs any help from me -- you will probably go from here to there and then never come back again. But if you PROMISE to return, take a look at http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/. It is a sight to see.

Anyway, a little while back she put up a recipe for sesame noodles, and told us (and I quote), "Make them this weekend!"

And since I am her devoted slave, I did. Amazingly, I had everything in the house except for the hot chili oil, and so I called 1-800-MYMOTHER, who always has everything somewhere in her pantry. Of course she had chili oil, so my lunchtime that same day the Southern husband and I were sitting down to the Pioneer Woman's sesame noodles. Which were outstanding, as usual. We had them plain, but they would be terrific with some shredded chicken, and/or cucumber, carrots, shrimp, etc etc etc.

And if I haven't been enough of a Pioneer Woman groupie for one day, I also need to tell you about this new cookbook she has.

And you can read more about it at the link below...

The Pioneer Woman Cooks

And guess what??? I have not one, not two, but THREE copies to give away! The rules are simple: leave a comment on this post that gives me a suggestion for a recipe you would like me to make and photograph. In one week I will pick 3 incredibly lucky commenters at random to get a copy of THE PIONEER WOMAN COOKS. Which I already know will be one of my favorite cookbooks of all time. (For my peeps who subscribe on email -- click on the recipe title up top and it will take you to the web page where you can comment. I love you guys!!)

So back to the sesame noodles for a second...for all of you who have already seen this one on her site, I have road-tested it for you and it's perfect. Of course. And for the rest of you...just don't forget about me once you have seen her site. And last but not least, make sure you check the Pioneer Woman website for her book tour dates to see if she is coming to your town...if she does and you get to meet her, ask her for me how she manages to photograph Every Single Step of Every Single Recipe, and still have it come out perfectly Every Single Time?

Okay then...ready, set...comment!!

SESAME NOODLES, from www.thepioneerwoman.com

12 ounces linguine, cooked and drained
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
3 to 4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 to 3 tablespoons sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon hot chile oil
4 to 5 tablespoons canola oil
2 tablespoons hot water
3 to 4 green onions, sliced thin

1. Whisk all ingredients (except noodles and green onions) together in a bowl. Taste and adjust ingredients as needed.

2. Pour sauce over warm noodles and toss to coat.

3. Sprinkle with green onions and toss.

Click here for Printable Recipe

Soba Noodles with Edamame, Carrots and Spinach

Lately it feels like this blog has been a rollercoaster of bacon, and chocolate, and bacon, and pasta, and bacon. Not that there is anything wrong with that. I will defend my right to eat bacon and pasta and chocolate with every fiber of my being. But from time to time I do like to throw some healthy stuff into the mix, just to keep everyone on their toes, including me. And when I saw this recipe on Mark Bittman's fabulous Bitten blog a little while ago, I thought -- this thing is so incredibly nutritious that one plate of it will probably balance out the entire last month's worth of bacon.

Plus it sounded so delicious. I am a big fan of edamame, although I usually eat it in those liberally salted servings you get at sushi restaurants. So I was delighted to see it start appearing in the frozen food section of the supermarket in all its green and healthy glory. Soba noodles were a little trickier to find, but I tracked them down in the Asian section of the supermarket. They cook up in no time -- 4-5 minutes tops. Fast-cooking pasta, right up my alley! Miso is the hardest part; it is in the refrigerated section of the store.

Anyway, once you assemble the ingredients it is about 10 minutes from start to finish. I modified the recipe slightly to drop the baby spinach in the water for the last 30 seconds or so -- for those of you who want to try it Mark's way, he mixed it up with the pasta once it was drained. It depends how "cooked" you like your spinach. I like mine cooked, baby.

So the next time you feel the urge for something supremely healthy and super-delicious, give this a try. We now return you to your regularly scheduled bacon-imbued programming.

SOBA NOODLES WITH EDAMAME, CARROTS AND SPINACH, from Mark Bittman's BITTEN blog

Salt and freshly ground pepper

3 to 4 ounces soba noodles

1 carrot, peeled and chopped

2 cups edamame (frozen are fine)

2 to 3 tablespoons soy sauce

Juice of one lime

2 tablespoons white or light miso

1 tablespoon mirin or 1 teaspoon sugar, or to taste

1 10-ounce package fresh baby spinach

1/4 cup chopped scallion

1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger.

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it. Drop in the noodles and carrot and cook until tender, 2 to 4 minutes; add the edamame and spinach for about 15 to 30 seconds just to warm, then drain everything in a colander. Set aside.

2. In a large salad bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, lime juice, miso and mirin or sugar. Add spinach, noodles, carrot, edamame, scallion, and toss; then taste and season with salt and pepper as needed. Garnish with grated ginger at the table.

Yield: 4 servings

Click here for printable recipe

Chicken with Apples and Sage

Summer is slowly fading away, the evenings are getting brisk, and that always makes me think of apples and pumpkins and butternut squash...mmmmmm. Autumn comfort food, it's the best. This snazzy little recipe is another one adapted from Mark Bittman's newest book, KITCHEN EXPRESS. Which I am developing a love-hate relationship with, because as I mentioned in an earlier post, it is not a collection of recipes, but more a description of quick dishes that can be assembled in 20 minutes or less. Sometimes he gives instructions on the ingredient proportions. Sometimes not.

To which I say: AAARRRGGGHHH!

Okay, I feel better now. I forgive you, Mark, because the ideas for these quick meals are so wonderful and creative. So as a service to all humankind, I am trying out my favorites and creating the Actual Recipes that go with them. This one is a sauteed chicken with an apple and sage sauce created from chicken broth, butter and a little brown sugar, served on a bed of buttered noodles. Truly ready in less than 20 minutes, and delish.

CHICKEN WITH APPLES AND SAGE

Adapted from KITCHEN EXPRESS by Mark Bittman

Serves 4

• 
  
• 4 chicken breasts, pounded to a thickness of about 1/2 inch
• 2 apples, cored, peeled and sliced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 shallot, diced
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup freshly chopped sage
• Cooked buttered egg noodles

1. Heat olive oil in large skillet over medium high heat and brown chicken breasts on both sides, approximately four minutes per side. Set aside.

2. Add butter to skillet and heat until melted. Add apples, shallot and brown sugar and cook for three minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. Add chicken broth, vinegar and sage and cook until sauce reduces slightly, about 2 minutes.

4. Return chicken pan with any accumulated juices and cook until chicken is heated through and sauce is slightly more reduced, about 2-5 minutes.

5. Serve chicken and apples over buttered noodles with pan sauce poured on top.

Click here for Printable Recipe

Cold Sesame Noodles with Chicken and Cucumbers

Cold sesame noodles is one of my favorite Asian dishes ever, and so I am always on the look-out for a new good recipe to try out. (which always then leads to a Recipe Shoot-Out, since then I have to go back and re-make all the ones that I already have, just to compare and contrast. Luckily I have a patient husband who doesn't mind eating variations on the same theme over and over and over, and a daughter who is happy to have Cheerios for dinner).

Anyway, I was therefore delighted to find this new recipe on Mark Bittman's fabulous blog, and take it out for a test drive with the leftover grilled chicken I had in my fridge. Overall I really liked it, and the cooperative Southern husband absolutely Loved it, with a Capital L. Which will not stop me from making the other version I already have in my binder, but if you don't already have a recipe for sesame noodles, this is a quick and easy one. I've included the link below, but I do have several pointers/suggestions/adjustments, because I just can't leave well enough alone!

1. This recipe calls for poached chicken, but I think it is SO much better with grilled chicken that has been shredded into bite-sized pieces.

2. I use the large shredder attachment on my food processor to deal with the cucumber. SO much easier and faster then shredding by hand, and better shreds. And we must have good shreds, you know.

3. Mix this thing up with your hands. It will absolutely come together the best way if you do this.

4. I garnished with sesame seeds instead of scallions, but I am not anti-scallion. The ones I had in the fridge were just looking a little dodgy. (don't you love being an improvisational cook?)

Aside from that I stuck very closely to this recipe (and feel free to ignore me and follow Mark's instructions to the letter, he does have a decent jump on me in terms of cooking expertise). And with that, here is the link:

Cold Sesame Noodles