Chicken noodle soup- for my soul!

[Logtec]

Chicken noodle soup:

I know it's easy just to open and heat a can of soup...
BUT homemade CNSoup is always better! There probably 1000's of recipes out there but this is mine, its hearty, tasty and is totally worth the extra effort to make while camping... or at home!

Serves 4
Total time: 45min

Ingredients
4 cups of water,
2 cups of chopped cooked chicken (dark meat, has more flavor),
2 cups of egg noodles,
1 cup of each (chopped)- carrots, celery, onion,
1 cup of corn,
1-2 tbsp of powder soup mix- to taste,
black Pepper- to taste,
Optional:
extra salt(but the soup mix already is salty!)
Chopped Jalapeño

Prep:
-cut veggies into uniform pieces
-cut chicken to 1" chunks, BBQ or fry, just until cooked. You could cook the chicken in the soup pot before hand, this will help flavor the soup.
OR
- buy 2 fully cooked, "1/4 chickens" from the grocery store,
de-skin, de-bone and cut the chicken.

Directions:
Bring water to boil in a pot, then turn down to a light boil,
add the powder soup mix, carrots, celery and onions and jalapeño. stir and let it cook for 5 mins, Then add the noodles let them cook til just before al dente then add the corn and chicken, season with pepper, let the soup simmer for 5 more minutes and serve.

[NYCgrrl]

Re: Chicken noodle soup- for my soul!

Even though I try hard to keep "processed" foods out of my rotation I gotta admit to having a soft spot for the occasional bowl of Lipton's Noodle Soup. Thanks for allowing me to rationalise it's purchase:D.

There is no logic at allll behind my craving for White Castles from time to time but well err that's a different problem.

[Logtec]

Re: Chicken noodle soup- for my soul!

Haha I totally agree..
I try to eat healthy, but it's hard to not eat processed food.
I used to like Wendy's, but now "Five guys" is in Toronto(altho i usually get the veggie/BLT sandwich without cheese), Wendy's have been replaced- sorry Dave, RIP

[NYCgrrl]

Re: Chicken noodle soup- for my soul!

Haha I totally agree..
I try to eat healthy, but it's hard to not eat processed food.
I used to like Wendy's, but now "Five guys" is in Toronto(altho i usually get the veggie/BLT sandwich without cheese), Wendy's have been replaced- sorry Dave, RIP

So far I've been able to resist Wendy's/BK and MickeyD's for quite a few years and since there is no Five Guys near me I can pass that test with ease.
Of late, I've been playing with grinding my own beef for burgers; interesting the differences using various meat cuts make to the final product.

This year, I've decided it's time to begin teaching my camping grrlies (ages 13 and almost 8) to do some cooking on site past knife work. Apropos of the subject we'll be making a chicken soup with dumplings. And possibly noodles since the younger grrlie is still timid about food outside her norm.

This is how we'll do it:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/r...ipe/index.html

I'll be substituting fresh herbs for the dried since the campground has a luverly crop of fresh herbs growing by the office. Got to love the work that volunteers do. And I'll pre package the dry mixture for the dumplings at home which should simplify to the process. A little vinegar added to milk does a nice job of substituting the butter milk and provide a science lesson for the grrlies as well(Yes. We have a 30-60 minute "What we learned in school" and how to apply it RL" lesson daily because doting grandparents/aunties have more time to think of this than parents.

You can tell I'm really looking forward to this trip, can't ya? :D

[Mike]

Re: Chicken noodle soup- for my soul!

Here is a nice twist to the original thread about making chicken soup. You get two meals out of one chicken with this:

Bring a whole (cleaned) chicken camping. Wire it to a spit and roast it slowly over the fire until cooked through. This might take an hour or so.

Serve it up to the crew with whatever side vittles you choose; corn, potatoes, etc.

Gather up all the left-over bones including the frame, wings, and the bones from the plates. If there are any left over veggies, they can go into the stew pot too. Empty corn cobs are welcome too - split.

Put the bones, skin, etc into a kettle with one raw onion cut in half, two sticks of celery cut into thirds, and two onions cut in thirds. Add enough water to completely cover the bones and veggies by at least two or three inches in the pot.

Boil for about about an hour or so. Add water as needed - no need to over-boil, of course. This is easy to do as you sit around the post-dinner campfire.

Set aside to cool. When cool enough to handle, strain off the solids from the broth including the bones, skin, meat, and vegetables. Discard the solids waste. If you don't have a strainer, you can form a bird nest out of long hay/gr**** and put into your receiving pot. Pour the broth into the bird nest and use it as a filter. Lift the bird nest and the solids out of the pot and discard the solids and the hay/grass.

Add 1/2 to one level teaspoon salt (to your taste. Cover, and let sit overnight for the next day's use.

To make soup, add new vegetables to your liking (carrots, peas, corn, potato), add a pinch of thyme if you have it, 1/3 teaspoon pepper, over and boil until the veggies are cooked to your liking. Add salt to your taste.

This would be a good meal to have fresh banock bread.

[NYCgrrl]

Re: Chicken noodle soup- for my soul!

Mike- what a nice use of roasted bones to make a stock/broth! Now I've a question...the corn cobs are they for flavouring as well and also roasted first?
Never thought to use grasses as a strainer either but will keep that in mind especially as I imagine certain grasses would add an additional layer of flavour to the finished product. In the past when I've no strainer, I placed a plate or lid over most of the pot opening and strained into a bowl. You can also press a spoon over the solids to extract more of that yummy liquid.

Trying not to go off topic you can also use dried hay or pine needles to cook shellfish on a grill. Great flavour!

[Mike]

Re: Chicken noodle soup- for my soul!

Mike- what a nice use of roasted bones to make a stock/broth! Now I've a question...the corn cobs are they for flavouring as well and also roasted first?
Never thought to use grasses as a strainer either but will keep that in mind especially as I imagine certain grasses would add an additional layer of flavour to the finished product. In the past when I've no strainer, I placed a plate or lid over most of the pot opening and strained into a bowl. You can also press a spoon over the solids to extract more of that yummy liquid.

Trying not to go off topic you can also use dried hay or pine needles to cook shellfish on a grill. Great flavour!

NYCgrrrl, I never thought to roast the corn cobs, but I bet it would be a nice addition. The purpose of the corn cobs, of course, is to add flavor. Most of the convertable dextrose is in the soft starchy corn cob center and it will add a certain sweetness. The corn cobs will also help to clarify the broth.

The hay/grass filter should be done while the stock is cold so as not to extract the green grassy taste, but that too, might not be a bad palette. In this way, you will also remove some of the excess fat from the broth. Of course, you can use a lid or spoon for filtering as you mentioned, but not quite to the same level of refinement as a wire or grass sieve.

Your suggestion for using hay or pine needles for cooking reminds me of the months I spent in the remote mountain villages of southern China. They cooked exclusively with hay - rice stalks to be specific for it was the only available fuel. They cooked directly on the dirt floors of their homes. The entire building would fill with the caustic smoke of the punky straw fire in the middle of the house. In the darkness of night, the room would be lighted by the burning flash of a handfull of straw, then die down into darkness until the next fistful of fuel was added to the fire. It was eerie and comforting all at once. Often, rabbit or chickens would be slaughtered right there by the sporatic rythm of darkness and light with the shrill scream of the rabbits shreaking their last breath and the consumption of their flesh happening within the moment of fifteen or twenty minutes. I would pity the traveller who had not been seasoned by hearty wilderness travel before an experience like that.

BTW.... I will share a secret ingredient to chicken soups that I learned in China: vinegar. Add a few tablespoons to the pot. It will cleans the palette and impart a fresh sweetness to the broth.