Cook: Asian Chicken Noodle Soup
Whenever I’m feeling under the weather, all I want is soup (and something binge-worthy to watch on Netflix). Regular chicken noodle soup has never quite done the trick for me and you can’t eat pho ALL the time (or can you???). That’s a debate for another time.
After some tinkering around, I came up with this soup which has tons of herbs, spices and turmeric chicken to help fight off colds and winter time blues. If you can make your own bone broth (that has the most magical healing elements) do that, but if you can’t, a good bone broth from your grocery store will work just fine.
Fundamentally, this isn’t all that different from regular chicken noodle soup. There are a few different key ingredients that I add that make it “Asian” style - ginger, to help with stomach and digestive issues, shiitake mushrooms for an umami boost, turmeric for the chicken, and thai basil, cilantro and lemongrass to give it that Pho-y feel. And, also a soy sauce based broth.
Ingredients:
3-4 carrots
1 medium sized white or yellow onion
3-4 green onions (sliced and separated into the green vs. white parts)
5-6 garlic cloves (peeled and diced)
1 small knob of ginger (grated or finely diced)
1 package of boneless, skinless, chicken thighs
About 1 tbsp of turmeric (enough to rub over the chicken)
Kosher salt and pepper
Sesame oil
1 box of chicken bone broth
1/2 cup of water
1/4 cup of low sodium soy sauce
Few dashes of fish sauce
Few dashes of mirin
1/2 package of shiitake mushrooms
1 stem of lemongrass
Toppings (all are optional, use what you like best)
The sliced green onion parts left from above
1/4 green cabbage (thinly sliced)
Cilantro
Thai basil
Mint
Togarashi or Sriracha sesame seeds
Limes
Directions:
1. I like to start by getting everything ready. The french culinary phrase for this is mise en place. It literally translates to “everything in place”. For me, this means getting all my chopping and measuring done so that when I’m actually cooking I can just dump, sauté, mix, stir and I’m ready to go. It also helps a TON with timing of your cooking. Bonus points if you can get someone to do this for you.
To start, chop up carrots, onion, the white part only of one bunch of green onions, garlic cloves and a small knob of ginger.
2. Now let’s work on the chicken. After you’ve washed the boneless, skinless chicken thighs. Rub turmeric all over, plus some salt and pepper and let it sit for 5-10 minutes. I recommend using gloves since turmeric has powerful coloring. Heat up a layer of sesame oil in a large soup pot over medium-high heat. Once it’s hot, brown the chicken thighs on all sides. Don’t cook them all the way through, you’re mostly looking for a nice even brown color.
3. After the chicken is brown, remove it from the pot onto a cutting board or plate. Next, you’re going to saute the vegetable, garlic, ginger mixture in the same coating of sesame oil. Add more if necessary. 5-6 minutes should do and everything should be soft and fragrant. This is when I also add in more salt, pepper and umami salt if you have some handy.
4. Now, you’re onto the soup making. Add chicken bone broth, water, low sodium soy sauce and a dash of mirin to the veggie mix. Also dump in the shiitake mushrooms. Cut off the wispy ends of lemongrass and slice it lengthwise and add it to the pot. Put your chicken in and make sure the broth covers everything. Finally, add a splash of fish sauce. Fish sauce makes everything taste better and gives your soup a base that regular sodium cannot. Let this simmer for an hour so that the chicken can cook though. It will be moist and fall off the fork juicy by the time it’s done.
After an hour (or an hour and a half if you have the time), remove the chicken and pull apart into smaller bite sized portions with a fork. Put the chicken back in and give your broth a taste. Adjust seasonings to your liking.
5. The fun part… assemble your bowl. While your pot was simmering, cut up any garnishes you want to accompany your soup. I recommend thinly sliced cabbage (for crunch), cilantro, Thai basil, the remainder of your green onions (the green parts), mint, sriracha sesame seeds, a slice of lime and some togarashi. You can add noodles if you are a noodle monster, but this soup is hearty so you may find you don’t need them. If you insist on noods, I recommend egg noodles or soba/udon noodles.
Slurp up this soup and make sure to let me know how it tastes in the comments!
Gather all your ingredients!
Mise en place - the french term for getting everything into place.
Turmeric will turn your chicken a beautiful golden color.
Asian style mirepoix!
Cold busting Asian Chicken Soup fo those cold winter days!