Chicken Bone Broth Noodle Soup

for when you need to find relief, strength, and resolve.

I’m upset.

19 elementary school children and 2 teachers were murdered at their own school in Uvalde, Texas.

I spent all Tuesday night crying. It’s devastating. It’s so senseless. It’s so frustrating that this gun violence, often against our most vulnerable communities, keeps happening in the U.S. On an average day in the U.S., more than 35 people are murdered with a gun. No other affluent country in the world has a gun homicide rate nearly as high. I’m so angry that we haven’t passed the gun control laws necessary, even as people are murdered every day. And the ones in Congress who are the gateway to passing the legislation to help end these senseless murders are the same ones who claim to be “pro-life” and are more concerned with controlling women’s bodies. Oh, but they do send their “thoughts and prayers” to the families.

I have a newborn niece, and best friends who have small children. I’m Titi. I feel this pain so deeply - what if it were one of them? I don’t have my own children, so I can’t even imagine what it feels like to be a parent right now.

So yeah, to be honest, it seemed really stupid to do a newsletter this week.

But, I felt myself drawn to the kitchen - wanting to use my hands, cook, make something beautiful when the world feels so ugly.

Sam Sifton from the New York Times captured my feelings so perfectly.

Food plays a central role in our reaction to tragedy, to death and grieving. It’s why casseroles appear on the doorsteps and countertops of those experiencing it, why we feel the urge to roast chickens or assemble lasagnas when the news is grim. Food is comfort of a sort, and fuel as well, for anger and sorrow alike. We cook to provide for those we love and for ourselves. In the activity itself we strive to find relief, strength, resolve.

So this week, I’m cooking to find relief, strength, and resolve. And I hope to help you find this as well.

Here’s how to make chicken bone broth noodle soup.

This is a very special and homey recipe that I cook often. I think we can all relate to how this one tastes like a big hug. While it’s actually very simple, it does take a few hours to prepare - which is good for times like these to work through the internal pain and suffering.

This recipe is also great because it cuts down on a lot of food waste, which is one of the highest contributors to climate change. So at least we can feel good about not contributing more to f*cking up this world.

Every time I roast a chicken, I freeze the carcass to use for the soup. And every time I have weird veggie scraps or veggies that are about to go bad, I also freeze them to use for this soup eventually. Note: you can also ditch the chicken and make a badass veggie broth with your veggies scraps.

I’ll include my recommendations for veggies and the amounts to use - garlic, carrot, celery, and onion are important. But this is a perfect opportunity to use up the scraps you have! For this one, I also added leeks, green onion, and radishes because it’s what I had frozen already.

I’ll break this recipe down into two parts:

You can either just make the bone broth to sip on, or use for cooking (instead of buying stock) or freeze for another time.

Once you have the broth, you can continue to make chicken noodle soup.

Chicken Bone Broth

Makes a 6-quart pot worth of broth

Ingredients

3 stalks of celery, sliced in 1 inch pieces

3 carrots, sliced in 1 inch pieces

1 red onion, quartered (you can even keep the skin on)

1 whole garlic, sliced in half (you can even keep the skin on)

½ leek, sliced in 2 inch pieces, optional

Leftover roasted chicken carcass

1 bunch dill or parsley, or both! not sliced, and including stems

2 Bay leafs

Salt + pepper

Let’s do it!

1. Take your veggies and chicken carcass from the freezer (or use fresh if you don’t have frozen!) and slice. This can be pretty rough chops, since we’re not actually eating these veggies.

   

2. Take a 6-quart pot and sauté the veggies briefly in oil until they are softened.

3. Add the chicken carcass and herbs to the pot.

4. Cover with water to almost the top of the pot.

5. Add salt and pepper.

6. Bring to a boil and then cover, reduce the heat to simmer, and simmer for at least 2 hours, and up to 12 hours. Check on it every so often and give it a stir.

   

7. Strain everything out into a big bowl. Note: you don’t want to keep any of the veggies or chicken leftover, all the nutrients are gone after cooking for so long.

8. Using a spoon, skim any fat off the surface.

9. Either store the broth in mason jars in the fridge or freezer or go on to make soup. 

Chicken Bone Broth Noodle Soup

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

2 carrots, peeled, sliced in half and then sliced in 1 inch pieces

3 stalks of celery, sliced in 1 inch pieces

1 red onion, quartered

4-6 garlic cloves, sliced thinly

2 chicken breasts

1 bunch of parsley or dill (or both!), finely chopped

Juice of 1 lemon

Salt+pepper

Let’s do it!

1. Sauté carrots, celery, garlic slices, and quartered red onion in a large pot over medium heat until softened and garlic is aromatic.

2. Add the stock.

3. Add half of parsley or dill (going to use the other half as a garnish). 

4. Add at least 3 tablespoons salt and several cranks of pepper. Taste and add more salt Add pepper to taste.

5. Bring the stock to a boil. 

6. Pound out the chicken breasts to tenderize.

7. Poach the chicken in the broth: Add chicken breasts to the stock, whole. Bring to a low simmer and cover for 15 mins until the chicken is tender. 

8. Pull the chicken out of the pot, and with a fork, tear off shreds of the chicken. Place the chicken shreds back into the soup. 

9. Add noodles straight to this pot until soft. I like to use rice noodles or orzo!

10. Dish out in bowls, and top with the remaining herbs, and salt + pepper if needed. 

    

Love ya mucho,

Tessa

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