 |
| If I'm not using one of my slow cookers, I'm using one of my cast-iron pots. |
I follow America’s Test Kitchen (ATK) slow-cooker recipe for
“Old Fashioned Chicken Noodle Soup.” You don’t start with hatching an egg and
raising it into a chicken, but very nearly. (Kind of like reading Michener’s Hawaii, where the novel begins at the
dawn of time with the creation of the islands and eventually gets to the part
where something actually happens.) The recipe includes browning chicken thighs,
wrapping the breast in foil so it’ll cook more slowly, pre-cooking veggies, throwing
things into the slow-cooker, eventually deboning the meat, and cooking the noodles
separately. It’s not your fix-it-and-forget-it style recipe.
And people love the results.
I have a few recipes that meet the “5 Ingredient” limit many
people insist on. They’re fine. But oh, that noodle soup! So good you’ll slap
your granny!
Sometimes, while viewing an episode of ATK, even I marvel at
the lengths to which they will go to add flavor, texture, crust, a little dash
of something at the end of the cooking to “brighten” the taste. I watch pots
and pans and dishes and utensils pile up at an alarming rate, knowing my
kitchen help is limited to a man who loads the dishwasher because he thinks I
toss the dishes in from across the room. He doesn’t wash dishes by hand because
the sink is exactly the depth that makes
his back ache. This is my father’s excuse also, and he’s shorter than I am. Do
they teach this in man school?
So I watch the entire episode, dish piles and all, and enjoy
it immensely. And sometimes even I say, “Yeah, I’m never going to make that.”
Well, Valerie, according to our household you are taking some short-cuts. (Or are you sill (just) Val?) We raise our own chickens and I make noodles from the eggs. So, for our chicken noodle soup we butcher an old hen and cook her in a variety of herbs. You skim off the fat and filter the broth. Next you pick off the meat and dice it. Then dice some carrots and celery and cook them in the broth. Add the meat back in and add the noodles-cook until tender. Salt and pepper to taste.
ReplyDeleteIs this my Warren from high school?!! I need your recipe! I've been trying to make a chicken and noodle casserole recipe my great-aunt in Ohio used to make, and I know it's labor intensive like yours, but tasted AMAZING! What herbs? (And you can still call me Val. I just quit using it because guys would call the house and ask for Val, and my dad thought it was really funny to say, "This is Val." Seriously cut into my dating!)
DeleteIt is my Warren! Thank you for the recipe! I'll try it soon.
DeleteI just LOVE your blog. You think and write the way I am thinking, but don't have the talent to put it into words, like you do. I enjoy your writing so much!
ReplyDeleteDon't every quit ! Mary
Thanks, Mary! Another story coming out in a new anthology now: A Stone Mountain Christmas, available in e-book now, paperback very soon!
DeleteIt doesn't have to be five ingredients or less, although that does simplify things. I don't mind having to toss a lot of ingredients into the slow cooker. I mind having to do a lot of prep work. The whole point of my slow cooker is that it did the work while I was at work...although your soup sounds delicious. I might would try your recipe since I know I need to plan for more time than just toss it in. I just have to get myself mentally prepared.
ReplyDelete