The Ultimate Chicken Noodle Soup

The Ultimate Chicken Noodle Soup

00:00 Intro
01:00 7 Secrets to Perfection
01:55 Blond vs Brown Chicken Stock
02:45 Best Parts of Chicken for Stock
03:36 Why Salt Ahead?
04:50 Making the Stock
08:30 Making the Sofrito
11:31 Straining the Stock
12:31 Making the Noodles
17:36 Finishing the Soup

The Stock
========

2 legs, 2 wings, and the back of 1 chicken (or 4 legs)
Salt
2 quarts (2 liters) of water (or enough to cover the chicken by about 2 inches / 5cm)
1 celery rib, sliced
1 medium carrot, sliced
1 yellow onions, sliced
1 bay leaf
A handful of thyme and parsley sprigs
1/2 tsp whole black peppercorns

Salt the chicken parts a day before making the stock. Cover with water. Put on a lid and bring to almost a boil. Uncover and bring to a full boil. Immediately turn down the heat to maintain a bare simmer. Skim the foam. Add all the aromatics and cook for 1.5 hours. Remove the chicken from the stock. Separate the meat, cover, and reserve (if possible refrigerate until the next day). Return all the bones, skin, and cartilage to the pot and simmer gently for another 1.5 hours.

The sofrito
========
6 medium tomatillos, husks and cores removed
3 Tbsp of butter or chicken fat skimmed from the stock or olive oil
1 celery rib, finely diced
1 yellow onion, finely diced
1 garlic clove, minced

Put the tomatillos on a foil lined baking sheet and cook under the broiler until burnt, 5-10 min. Flip and cook until burnt on the other side. Let cool.

Set a medium pot over medium-low heat. Add the celery, onion, and a generous pinch of salt. Stir, cover and cook until the onions start to turn translucent, 5-10 min. Uncover and continue to cook stirring occasionally until vegetables are very tender and golden brown, about 10 min. Add the garlic, a pinch of salt, and cook until jammy, 5-10 min. Peel the tomatillos and add them to the pot with all their juices. Add a pinch of salt. Break them up and cook until thick. Taste and correct seasoning. They should be very intensely sour and salty.

The soup
=======
1 carrot, chopped
Strain the stock into the sofrito and season with salt to taste. Bring to a simmer. Add the carrot and cook until tender, about 20 min. Take off heat and if possible let cool to room temperature and refrigerate until the next day.

To rewarm, bring the soup to a simmer and take off heat. Cut up the chicken into bite size pieces and add to the soup for 2 minutes. Ladle into bowls on top of cooked noodles coated in butter (recipe follows). Top with dill and/or cilantro.

Fresh noodles
===========
300g bread flour (unbleached all-purpose is fine in a pinch)
1 large egg + 1 large yolk + enough cold water to get 185g* of wet ingredients
5.7g salt (1 tsp table salt or 2 tsp Diamond Crystal Kosher or weighed for all other salt types)
* This assumes very low humidity. For wetter climates, decrease to 175g.

Put the flour, then the wet ingredients, then salt into the food processor. Run it until no dry flour remains. Get all the dough clumps out onto a work surface and knead for 8 min by hand.

If your dough sticks after the first minute of kneading, add more flour. Dust with flour, wrap in plastic, and let rest for 1 to 6 hours at room temperature. Roll out as shown in the video (if using a pasta roller, stop at the 5th setting to keep them slightly chubby). Dry until no longer tacky, but still pliable. Mix rice flour and cornstarch for sprinkling the pasta sheets to reduce sticking during cutting and storage. Cut as shown in the video. If you want to freeze them for future use, put into large zip lock bags in a very thin layer and store them in the freezer. Cook in a very generously salted boiling water without crowding the pot for 1 min (if cooking from frozen, cook until the pot returns to a boil). Remove with a slotted spoon (don’t strain in a colander to keep the floury sediment on the bottom of the pot). Toss with butter and top with soup.

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[johndough]

My Grandmother used to make something similar... but the one thing she did that I was surprised about, was the use of Celery Leaves. They give an amazing taste to the Soup, and they add to the texture. A much better replacement to the blander Parsley.

[MottiShneor]

Thank you dear Hellen. My next chicken-noodle soup will definitely benefit from your efforts and investment in this video.
I want to tell you that back in the days of my childhood, with way less availability of food and ingredients, We would never even dream of removing those vegetables cooked in the soup and throwing them, They were ALWAYS part of the soup, and if you ask me - the "main thing" there. We never put large chunks of vegetables there, but rather excellently chopped cubes of vegetables (including carrots, zucchini onions, celery (root and stems and leaves) Leek, potatoes, sometimes turnip, sweet red pumpkin) all middle-eastern variations of the vegetables. We never even dreamt of making the soup "clear" -- on the contrary - we wanted it thick and cloudy - hence the potatoes.

Maybe the "European" broth-based soup is considered to be a very different thing, but I just can't imagine how it's better than a rich chicken soup with vegetables "the old way". We also usually use the thinnest-possible egg-noodles (they're like hair) and add them 5-8 min before turning off the heat - and hop! to the bowl.

One more ingredient we use --- which is really a Chinese idea -- AFTER we turn off the heat, we break a new egg into the pot, and gently stir the whole soup in fast circle until fine "threads" of lightly cooked egg form. Soft and comforting, and so tasty!!!

Thanks again.

[Jeffffrey]

I use drumettes for weekday dinners. Just 30 minutes of simmering makes them mighty tender. I also like to add nutmeg, and chili powder and parmesan when serving. Thanks for sharing your recipe, Helen. I never thought chicken noodle soup can be such a big project. BTW, if you decide to add onion skin to your stock and you have a Corian worktop, try not to spill the stock onto your worktop as it stains badly. I learnt that the hard way.

[megcasey]

Amazing tutorial. I was a bit skeptical, but the pre salting is a game changer! I could not believe how delish the chicken was at 1.5 hours. I’d also like to report some freezing results: I cooked the soup up until adding the carrots (i.e., just the onions/celery and stock) and froze 1/2, then vacuum sealed (gentle setting) 1/2 the chicken and froze that too. Took the chicken out of the freezer to thaw in the afternoon, thawed the broth in the microwave, and proceeded with the recipe, and it was just as good as the first time. Hope that helps.

[nannyflowers]

I so appreciate this tutorial but I also just watched the foccacia masterclass which was fantastic! Your emotion at the end brought tears to my eyes. You ARE passing the torch on to us and I have to say I just love you for it. It makes my heart feel so good. ✌️ ✌️ 💜 💜 and many blessings to you Dear Helen.

[lindacoffin]

Taking the basics to new heights Helen. Thanks for this lesson.

[davidhalldurham]

My goodness, Helen, this was a genius recipe! Thank you so much.

[mrtimmelton]

I love the idea of picking the meat early and continuing to cook the bones. Can't wait to try it.

[bryanmcwhirter]

Absolutely the best tutorial on chicken noodle soup I've seen, in whole or in part! Thankyou Helen. Bryan from Canada.

[fp]

I appreciate your videos. Don't take this as an insult at all, it's a compliment, but, your voice is so soothing that I sometimes find myself falling into a relaxing catnap while listening to instructions.

[Berkana]

5:19 Helen, I highly recommend one of those Asian style soup skimmers with the super fine mesh for skimming the scum off the top. They take off only the scum and leave all the liquid. If you search for "fat skimmer" or "hot pot skimmer" you'll find them. Oddly, the ultra fine mesh ones are able to skim fat off the top of a soup as well. When the mesh gets fine enough, for some reason, water passes through easily, but fat resists going through the mesh just enough to make it possible to skim fat off the top of the soup.

[MHarenArt]

I make chicken stock and chick soup quite often. I make brown for stock, and blond for soup. It's not hard, but it is time consuming. When I put up the pot in the morning, it's usually early evening by the time I've got it all strained and put away in jars for the fridge. I do cook the bones for another few hours. I also learned somewhere ?? that if you add just a little vinegar to the pot, it won't really change the flavor but it will aid in extracting as much as possible from the bones. The one technique that I think is important for the finished product (as you did) is to toss the over cooked veggies and put the fresh ones in to cook for eating. The ones used to make the stock have already given up all they have to give to the stock/broth and are just mushy globs. I haven't ever tried to make my own noodles, but I think I'll try it. I love big thick noodles, they are bit more like dumplings. Yum! thanks for sharing all your great tips!

[Berkana]

4:40 Helen, I found a trick that really helps when cooking drumsticks to extract flavor from them: I cut all the way down to the bone around the skinny end of the drumstick to sever all the tendons, then I cut down to the bone along the flat / "inside" of the drumstick and open the meat up to expose the bone. This makes salting the meat more effective because the salt gets contact with meat rather than skin, and when cooking, the exposed bone yields collagen to the soup right away.

Making a cut on the inside of the thighs to expose the bone and opening the meat up to expose the bone more also helps.

[avagrego]

I like the idea of removing the cooked chicken from the bones and then cooking the bones and other parts longer.

[malsahm]

You are one of my favorite YouTube chefs. Your genius❤

[notaclue]

Excellent! Lots of salt and that's important with stock. I like the soffrito and the tomillo part. I'm sure this soup is just delicious. I would be making a bigger batch of soup stock so I'd have left overs.

[Rouverius]

Looks great. Can't wait to try this soup. Thanks!

[ghw]

My late mother used to make an excellent chicken noodle soup, so when she started using canned, I asked her why. Her reply was that nobody really cared and she went for easy. I never got her original recipe, so thank you, Helen!

[RowlandGosling]

Love adding the noodles to the bowl and not the soup! Well done Helen!

[rodmckenzie]

Once again, a great video. So many wonderful tips. I LOVE the idea of using roasted tomatillos. I'll try that when our local crop is in season.