The best remedy for someone who’s sneezing, coughing, feverish, and downright miserable is a nice, warm bowl of chicken noodle soup. I must confess – I did not make the soup in the above picture. Instead, a kind friend personally made the soup from scratch and walked it over to my place. Thanks Vivian!
I have been stuck at home for 2 days now with a bad case of the flu (explaining why there are fewer posts this week! I’m not really cooking or eating out!) However, I thought I would share with you the makings of a good, basic Chinese chicken broth, which can serve as a base for countless different soups.
Chinese Chicken Broth
Adapted from Asian Noodles by Nina Simonds
3 1/2 pounds chicken bones, necks, backs, and/or pieces
9 cups water
1 cup Chinese rice wine or sake
6 slices of fresh ginger (lightly smashed)
Salt and pepper to taste
Combine all the ingredients in a large pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to low and simmer for 1 1/2 hours. Periodically skim the surface of the soup to remove scum or various impurities. Strain the finished broth through a fine strainer. Skim to remove the fat or, alternatively, put the broth in the refrigerator and skim off the solid fat afterwards.
I know Vivian used a whole Cornish hen to make this particular soup. If you are using an entire chicken, it’s a good idea to use a large cleaver and cut it up into several pieces. You want the goodness from the bones to get into the soup. That’s where all the healing compounds are hiding!
Once you have the stock, the possibilities are endless. You can add various vegetables, such as carrots, potatoes, mushrooms, and noodles. This particular soup had carrots, onions, enoki mushrooms, and potatoes. I added rice vermicelli noodles and sprinkled some chopped scallions on top, but you can use whatever suits your fancy.
Enjoy! Slurp, slurp, slurp . . . .
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This soup sounds delicious! It is a nice twist from the tradionnal North American noodle soup I grew up eating 🙂
The broth looks real good. No impurities, rich and good color. The anti-inflammatory effects of the ginger should help out with some of your flu symptoms. Lucky for you, I’m in the pharmacy business so ask if you have any drug questions 🙂
What a wonderful bowl of comfort food!
There are healing compounds in chicken bones? What are they?
oh dude! this dish looks clean, simple, but deep in flavors! man… I’m so freakin’ hungry now. yum… yum…
Aw, the best dishes are ones made by others with love and care. What a lovely gesture and I hope you’re feeling better. 😉
This looks delicious, even if you didn’t make it. Hope you feel better soon!
why were the chives/scallions photoshopped into the image?
Re: Anonymous The scallions were not added via Photoshop to the image. In fact, they are real and I ate them!
You avoided the question about the chives being photo shopped in to the image though
No comment I suspect
wow who cares if they are photo shopped in there maybe her friend just forgot about them. I mean really do you have to put people down all the time. Do you have no life that you have to examine the photos of soup?????
Can you do this in a pressure cooker like you did with the beef noodle soup?
So I did this in a pressure cooker and it turned out great! I love this recipe, it is so simple yet tasty. THANKS!