The Cure for the Common Cold

I can't be certain, but I'm pretty sure that this will in fact cure colds and probably other diseases. I do know for sure that this soup is better than your mother's, or at least as good as hers. I know it's true because my mom trusted me to make it and she even liked it. The secret to extremely simple, intensely flavorful chicken noodle soup is your oven. Yes, you will need your stove as well, but roasting is the most important part as I've mentioned before.

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken plus 4  drumsticks
3 onions
6 carrots
6 celery stalks
1/2 bag of dumpling egg noodles

This is the color of the stock. This is what you want. Light stock will make you an extremely okay soup. This dark stock will make you the best chicken noodle soup you've ever tasted, and it couldn't be easier to make. Step one: preheat your oven to 425 degrees. I'm confident there will be no problems with that. Add the whole chicken and the drumsticks to a large stockpot (the extra drumsticks are optional, but they'll help boost the chicken flavor). Next quarter two onions, cut three carrots and three stocks of celery into thirds, and add that to the stockpot. Place all of that goodness in the oven, and let it get deliciously golden brown. It will take awhile, but you want to make sure the chicken, and all of the vegetables are golden. The onions may turn  black in some spots; don't worry about that. Also here's a free tip I just learned: if you leave the onion skins on your stock will be even darker.

When that happens, be smart. Don't be like me. Take the chicken out and cut off both breasts. If you leave them on, they will get completely dried out while simmer in the stock, which, I know, sounds weird. How does something become dry while sitting in liquid? I don't know, but that's what happens. Whether you use the meat in the soup is completely up to you. With the added drumsticks, I had plenty of meat, so I used the breast meat for other things. I'm talking to you, Chicken Salad. After the breasts have been removed, fill the pot with water and let it simmer for around four hours. 

After four hours, we have pure gold. Strain everything and keep only the chicken. Aromatics are cheap and we don't want mushy vegetables in our soup. Do not try to pick the chicken from the bones. You'll burn your fingers. Trust me. I've made that mistake once or twice or way too many, so that you don't have to. Put the chicken somewhere cold, and while you wait for it to cool chop an onion, three carrots, and three stalks of celery.

Let the vegetables simmer in the stock for an hour, or until they're nice and tender but not mushy. At that point you can cook your pasta. Cook it separately. That way everyone can have as many noodles as they want, and the stock and vegetable mixture can be used for something else if you get tired of leftover soup. When the noodles are done, put them in a bowl and add the liquid to get THIS!!

Okay that looks like a big bowl of broth with noodles in it. I SWEAR I put vegetables in. If you look at the picture up top there's even evidence of vegetables.

Make this. There's like a whole series of books about why you should. Or maybe that's not what they're about. I don't actually know. I mentioned leftovers. Do you like pot pies? Because I made a pot pie with the leftovers. You can add roux, peas, corn, and potatoes and have perfect pot pie filling. I've just given you two meal suggestions, so I think we're done here.

Smoked Turkey Wild Rice Soup

I should really work on my photography skills. Also food styling skills because those green onions are a sad, sad garnish. It may not be the most appealing visually, but I promise it is worth every second it takes to make. I love soup. Basically all of them, and this is probably my favorite. Earlier in the week I smoked a whole turkey and had the leftover carcass to work with, but it is as delicious with a roasted turkey or chicken. Just do whatever you need to do to eat this soup. I seriously ate it for two meals one day.

6 tbsp butter
1 large chopped onion
3 stalks of chopped celery
3 chopped carrots
6 qts poultry stock
1 1\2 tsp dried thyme
1 tbsp salt
1tsp ground pepper
1/4 C flour
1 C uncooked wild rice
3 C water or stock
1 C heavy cream
a pinch of green onion if you want a sad, sad garnish

The most important part of this soup (or any soup really) is the stock. Don't bother using store bought stock, broth, or base. If you're going to make soup, you're going to have to roast some bones. Even if you have an already roasted (or smoked) turkey or chicken, I still roast the carcass before making stock. You want to make sure most of the meat is removed first because it will get pretty dried out after roasting and simmering for a few hours, but after that just roast them in a 400 degree oven until they're really golden brown; about an hour. It's going to add tons of flavor.

After roasting I add a whole bunch of water, scrape up any delicious bits stuck to the pan, and let it simmer for at least four hours. I always add pepper to my stock, but never salt. I season the dish that it goes into as needed because if you season the stock before adding it to the dish you have to worry about how much the liquid reduces. Enough talk of stock; let's get into soup making.

First you need to chop your veg. I try to keep the chunks at maybe 3/16 of an inch. That sounds specific, but in my head an 1/8th is too small and 1/4 is too big. This soup also requires a roux, which means I start by browning some butter. Butter is delicious. Brown butter is like gilding the lily that is butter. If I'm frying something in butter, I almost always brown it first. It is possible to burn the butter, but if you watch carefully, it's pretty easy to tell when the butter is browned. Don't keep cooking it past that point. When your butter is browned, add the veg and let it sweat until the celery and onion are translucent. A little longer than the picture above. Next add the flour and let it cook for a minute. Some might stick to the bottom of the pot. Don't worry about it. After the minute has passed, add a few cups of stock. You don't want to add all of the liquid at once or it can get lumpy. Add a few cups. Stir. Add some more. Stir. Add the rest. Hope you didn't screw it up because if you did there's no way to fix it.

Now you can just let this simmer for a couple hours on low. Add salt and pepper to taste along with thyme. It's too hard to give estimates. I tend to prefer dishes saltier, I love lots of herbs, my mom adds crazy amounts of pepper to everything. The numbers I gave are a guide. Just taste it and add more salt, pepper, or herbs as you desire. Stir it every once in a while, and make sure it doesn't stick. While this is simmering, you can cook the wild rice. Add one cup wild rice to three cups water or stock. Let it boil then add a cover and reduce to a simmer. The rice will sort of pop inside out kind of like popcorn. It takes around 30-40 minutes. I didn't take pictures of it, but the change should be obvious. One minute, you have dark, riced shaped grain. The next, you have a weird, grayish, arched grain.

When the rice is done, drain any remaining water and add the rice to your soup pot along with the meat from the turkey or chicken carcass. Let that simmer for another 30 minutes. Adjust seasoning if necessary, then add cream and let the soup heat to a satisfactory temperature.

Even with the pathetic garnish, I wish I was eating a bowl of this right now. It is unbelievably delicious. If you've never had wild rice, make an effort to try some. The texture is completely different from traditional rice, and it is much more satisfying. You can also add different vegetables if you like. I know some people like mushrooms and some like red pepper. You can also add bacon and chipotle powder if you want something a little smoky and spicy. I can't say it enough, make this it's amazing.