There are few things more restorative than a bowl of soup. Doubly so for a big bowl of chicken soup stacked with noodles and leafy greens. But not all of us have time to cook from scratch during this hibernation period.
Adelaide chef Emma McCaskill (ex-Sparkke at the Whitmore) makes this simple recipe once a week for herself and her kids, Billie and Grace. It calls for an easy hack ingredient – store-bought roast chicken – which means you can have it on the table in 40 minutes.
“It’s pretty much our staple,” she tells Broadsheet. “It’s really fitting for this weather, [and] a lot of people are buying produce boxes right now and you can add any sort of root vegetables to the soup.
“People are quite stressed right now … it doesn’t take a lot of time to make, it’s relatively cheap and it’s healthy. So it’s good for this period.”
Emma McCaskill’s Roast Chicken Noodle Soup
Serves 4–6
Preparation time: 40 minutes
Ingredients
1 whole roasted chicken (stuffing removed) from charcoal chicken shop
100g salted butter
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 small brown onions, finely chopped
1 small knob fresh ginger, peeled and finely diced
2 cloves fresh garlic, finely diced
300g white cabbage, chopped
100g carrots, peeled and chopped
400g somen noodles (or egg noodles or sweet potato noodles for a gluten-free option)
1 bunch bok choy, finely chopped
3 spring onions, finely sliced
1 tbsp parsley, finely chopped
Method
Wearing gloves, remove breast, thigh and leg meat from chicken. Shred and reserve to the side.
Place chicken bones and carcass in large saucepan, and cover with boiling water from the kettle (approx. 2.2L–2.5L). Boil for 15-20 minutes. Strain and reserve the broth.
Meanwhile, warm the butter and olive oil in a separate saucepan on medium heat. Add the onion and sweat for 2 minutes. Add the ginger and garlic and sweat for a further minute. Add the cabbage and carrots and sweat for 2 minutes. Stir and set aside.
Bring a separate pan of water to the boil, add noodles and cook the noodles for 2 minutes. Drain and divide between 4–6 bowls.
Turn the broth to high and add the shredded chicken meat, bok choy, spring onions and parsley. As soon as it comes to the boil again, turn it off. Season with salt if need be. Serve on top of noodles and enjoy.
