Weekend Cooking...The World's Best Chicken Soup

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When the weather turns chilly..if it ever does here in NJ...there is nothing as warming as some soup and in my mind the King of Soups is Chicken Noodle.

And if I do say so myself, I make a very good chicken soup. Perhaps, the World's Best.

So what is my secret?
And should I share it?

Well, it is Christmastime, so it will be my gift to you, my dear readers.
It is all about the stock.
And my stock is very easy, and very cheap and takes days.
Yes, days.
But days when you do nothing to it, just let it bubble away.

I have tried many thing to make chicken stock. Necks, wings, even chicken feet which was rather creepy. And the best thing to make stock are the carcasses from rotisserie chickens. Ever so often I get one from Sam's Club and when I have eaten all the meat, I crush the carcass a bit, put it in a gallon freezer bag and stick it in the freezer. When I have three frozen ones, perfect for my stock pot, it is stock time!

I put the bones in a 10 gallon stock pot, with several roughly chopped onions, carrots, celery. Add a handful of whole peppercorns, a few bay leaves and fill to cover with cold water. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer, cover and leave it simmering, very low, two or three days. Yes, days.

At that point, I get another big pot and put a colander on top of it and using a big skimmer, scoop out all the bones and depleted veggies. Then I strain the liquid into that same smaller pot through a fine mesh stainer to catch any solids. You have a  gallon or two of very rich stock to use or freeze.

One final, very important step. Got this tip from an old Jewish grandmother. You have very hot stock and you want to put it in the frig. If you just put it in the frig hot, it will actually lower the temperature of the whole frig. Not good. If you let it set out to cool, it reaches a temp when it is the perfect temperature for bacteria to grow, which can give it a sour, off taste. At best.
So...fill your sink 1/2 way with cold water, add some ice, put the hot pot in the cold water and stir. In about 5 minutes it will be cool and you can put it in the frig overnight. All the grease will rise to the top overnight where you can skim it off. I then pour it into freezer bags to put in the deep freeze, if I am not using it at one.

Ok, so where is the soup?
Just 15 minutes or so away!
When you want to make the soup, I take a bag of stock out of the freezer and put it in a pot, frozen, over low heat to defrost. Meanwhile, I prepare what I will add. I chop a couple of carrots, some onion and celery and when the stock is hot, I add then to the stock to cook, about 10 minutes. It is at this point that I add salt to taste and adjust the stock. It may actually be too strong and you need to add a bit of water. I also start a pot of boiling water and add wide noodles (they cook in 10 minutes), tri-color tortellini (6 minutes), thin noodles (3 minutes), so in 10 minutes they are all perfectly cooked in the one pot.
Now, personally, I usually keep the noodles separate from the stock until shorty before I serve it so they do not overcook and get mushy.
Then I put it all together.
Stock with veggies.
Add pre-cooked noodles.
Add shredded roasted or poached chicken and at the last minute, a good amount of baby spinach..it will wilt down a great deal

Top with a little grated Parmesan cheese and serve!

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This is my contribution this to this week's Weekend Cooking.
"Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend."
Be sure to check out the other entries this week. As always, hosted by Beth Fish Reads.

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