divine angst

Yesterday was not my best day. I don’t think I’d want the outcome to be any different, but how I got there was uncomfortable and hard and exhausting.

Of course, therefore, today would be the day I needed to get started on the next wave of journal duties. This, actually, is good—it takes my mind off of things and lets me do work I am good at, thus building my confidence back up. So, yay! Of course, the things I am doing today are the most tedious things, so, boo.

As a consolation to myself, I decided to make some chicken noodle soup. From scratch. (OK, I didn’t make the noodles from scratch. That would be silly. Sillier than making chicken noodle soup from scratch.) I’m using a recipe from Cook’s Illustrated that lets you make a whole pot of goodness in about 90 minutes with stuff you probably already have (as well as a whole chicken, which you might have to pop into the supermarket for).

The basic idea is this:

By sauteing chicken pieces until they release all their natural juices and goodness, you can make a flavorful and rich stock without standing over a pot all day, skimming off nastiness. You then use the meat from the chicken in the soup, and it all gets cooked in one pot. There are a number of steps, yes, but overall, it wasn’t tough to make at all.

First, you have to chop up your chicken. Remove the breasts, skin and bone, split them, and reserve them. Also remove the wings and leg/thighs. Now you should have two breasts, two wings, and two leg/thighs, as well as the back of the chicken. Chop the back into three or four pieces crosswise, then chop those pieces in half. A good cleaver is probably necessary for this. Chop the wings at each joint, then chop the two larger pieces (not the wing tip, in other words) in half, again probably with a cleaver. Separate the leg from the thigh, and chop both the leg and the thigh into two or three pieces, depending on how big your chicken is. A cleaver is almost necessary for this because the bones are so sturdy in the legs/thighs.

Now you should have a big pile of chicken parts, plus the two breasts. Pull out a big pot. I used a 5 quart Le Creuset dutch oven. Put a tablespoon of oil in the bottom, heat it till smoking, and brown the chicken breasts on both sides for about 5 minutes total. Remove. Then add one chopped onion and saute until slightly colored and tender. Remove to a bowl. Don’t put the onions with the chicken breasts. Then add half the chicken pieces to the pot and saute until they aren’t pink. (That doesn’t mean you have to cook them through; just get them nicely browned on all sides.) Remove, and add to onions. Do the rest of the chicken pieces.

Now add the other chicken pieces and onions back to the pot. Turn the pot down a bit, cover it, and let the onions and chicken cook together for about 20 minutes. The chicken will release its juices and start to smell amazing.

Put a pot of water onto boil with about 2 quarts of water. When the chicken has cooked and the water is boiling, add the water and the chicken breasts to the pot along with some salt and bay leaves. Turn the heat down to low and simmer, covered, for about 20 more minutes, until you have a lovely, fragrant and flavorful broth.

Pull the chicken breasts out of the pot, and set aside to cool. Strain the broth. Set it aside to separate. If you have a defatter, this would be a good time to use it, since you want to skim the fat from the broth. Reserve about 2 tablespoons, though.

When the breasts are cool enough, remove the skin and bones and shred the meat into bite size pieces. Here, you have a choice: you can either discard all the other chicken pieces or you can pick through them for the meat. I did the latter.

Add the reserved chicken fat back to the pot and turn the heat to medium-high. Add another chopped onion, a large carrot, chopped into quarter-inch pieces, and a rib of celery, also chopped into quarter-inch pieces. Cook till they start to soften. Add the shredded chicken and broth back to the pot, and simmer for about 15 minutes, or until the flavors come together. Throw in a bit of dried thyme, too.

The last step is to add about 2 cups of wide elbow noodles. Cook them about five minutes, or until they are just tender. Serve with fresh chopped parsley (which I did not have, so I used dried).

Enjoy!