Roast Chicken Noodle Soup
SERVES 4-6
PREP TIME 3 hrs (including roasting the chicken)
DIFFICULTY Medium (although I would argue easy)
INGREDIENTS
1 whole chicken
3 carrots, peeled and sliced into 2 cm chunks
1 onion, peeled and cut into wedges
2 celery sticks, cut into chunks
2 tablespoons chicken stock powder
4 litres of water
1 tablespoon peppercorns
1 bouquet garni, the fancy AF word for a handful of herbs like thyme, parsley stalks, rosemary, bay leaf.
Sea salt, to taste
200 g broken spaghetti
1 ½ cups frozen peas
½ cup chopped parsley leaves
2-3 spring onions (green onions/shallots), finely sliced
Fresh bread and butter, for serving
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 220°C.
MAKE AHEAD:
Season the whole chicken generously with sea salt and place it in the preheated oven. Roast the chicken on a paper lined tray for approximately one hour until it's cooked through and golden brown. Allow it to cool to room temperature.
Once the chicken has cooled, separate the skin, flesh, and bones. Place the skin and bones (and all gristle!) into a large saucepan. Store the chicken flesh in a separate container for later use.
To the saucepan with the chicken skin and bones, add the carrots, onion, celery, chicken stock powder, water, peppercorns, and Bouquet garni. Bring the mixture to a simmer over low heat and let it cook for two hours.
After simmering, strain the stock & discard everything except the liquid and carrots for serving with the soup.
On the night you need it:
Bring the strained stock back to a boil and add the broken spaghetti, frozen peas, and chopped parsley leaves. Cook the pasta until it is just al dente, slightly under the recommended cooking time (about 1 to 2 minutes less).
Finally, add the chicken flesh that you had previously chopped into 1 to 2 cm chunks.
Serve the roast chicken noodle soup steaming hot, accompanied by crunchy fresh bread and plenty of butter.
3hrs is a ridiculous amount of time to spend on cooking a dinner for a weeknight. If you can organise yourself then I 100% recommend prepping this all on the weekend and storing the soup/carrots in one container and the chicken in another in the fridge until you crave it, then BOOM, skip straight to the night you need and you’ll have dinner in 10 mins!