Meghan's World Famous Chicken Noodle Soup That I Made For the First Time

Holy crap, I have not written anything in awhile. But I haven't really made anything worth writing about in awhile, so what are you gonna do. Dennis was feeling sick last week so I made it my business to make him some chicken noodle soup.

Of course I forgot to take pictures even though I had plenty of opportunities. I made a huge batch of soup and ate the leftovers for days, and still I didn't think to pick up a camera. Well lucky for you, I made so much that I had to freeze some of the broth and therefore another opportunity will present itself soon. Byah!

I perused a couple different recipes to help me with this soup but it was mostly to gauge the timing so I'm not even going to dignify them with a link. That's right - I'm taking sole credit!!

Ingredients
2 chicken breasts
15ish chicken bouillon cubes
1 bag of baby carrots
1 white/yellow onion
1 bunch of celery
1 bag of egg noodles
salt & pepper to taste

Fun fact: Did you know that celery, carrots, & onions are considered the "holy trinity" of French cuisine? The French term is a "mirepoix," or a mixture of chopped vegetables usually used as a base for soups, stews, and sauces. Fun stuff!

I headed into this endeavor with an open mind for experimentation, so my directions are going to be approximate. I think it is really hard to screw up this soup but maybe you all can prove me wrong. :) First things first... get a big ole pot. I have no idea how big mine was.. it was a large pot about 1 foot tall. I filled it up 3/4 of the way to the top, keeping in mind that I was going to have to leave room for the ingredients.

I brought the water to a boil and put a good amount of salt in it. Well that doesn't really help you at all, does it? A good amount could mean anything. Ever seen one of these doohickeys?

These contraptions dispense my salt and pepper because I am high society. So when I say I put a good amount of salt in the water, I mean I cracked the salt grinder about ten times. You could say I put 10 pinches of salt in there. Where was I? Oh yes, the water.

So when the water is boiling, I dropped 2 chicken breasts in there along with 15 bouillon cubes. I say 15, but that is really just a guess. I had no idea how many to use so I just kept adding them until I felt at peace with my chicken broth. I also didn't cut the fat away from the chicken because well, I'm just that lazy. But don't worry I did it later. I let the chicken boil for 10 minutes, then I took it out and checked it with the thermometer every ten minutes until it read the USDA approved temperature of 165 degrees. Then I removed it from the water and cubed it. THEN I cut the fat away. Twist ending.

At this point, you should bring the water down to a simmer, and there should be some fat or oil floating on the top of your water. Use a spoon or a mesh strainer thingy (like I did) to skim the fat from the water. Then you can put the now-cubed chicken back into the water and add your veggies!

I got a bag of baby carrots because I don't know why. Usually when you see carrots in soup they are cut up in little circles, right? Well, I just now came up with a reason. Dennis doesn't like carrots and I thought it would be easier for me to fish them out if they were in baby carrot form so that is why I deviated from the norm. I chopped up the celery and onions like normal though because I guess in some ways, I am still a conformist.

So I let all of that mess simmer on low heat for about 45 minutes. I kept setting the timer for 10 minutes and then checking the carrots. Once the carrots were soft I felt like my work was done. Oh, this is kind of weird but one website said to put SIX whole peppercorns in there and for some reason I did. I do not recommend this. If you have never cracked open a peppercorn in your mouth, you will have lived a full life. Don't do it, and don't chance doing it by putting whole peppercorns in your soup. Yech! Just crack some pepper in it like a normal person.

Now at this point, you should add the noodles. CAUTION! If you are planning on freezing your leftover soup, do not add the noodles to the broth that you will be freezing! I put half of my broth into a separate bowl and let it cool off. Then I added half of the bag of egg noodles to the big ole pot and turned the heat back to high. Using my same trusty method of checking every ten minutes, I tried the noodles until they seemed to be cooked all the way through. One ten minute interval is probably all the time it took.

Once the noodles were done, the soup was complete! I like my soup spicy so I added some tabasco. Dennis buttered some bread and we ate soup and bread. It was delish. I was really proud of myself.

Once the broth that I wanted to freeze had cooled off, I poured it into 2 ziploc bags and put them in the freezer. The reason you should freeze the broth without the noodles is that sometimes this process can make the noodles soggy or give them a weird consistency. You could thaw your soup and throw the noodles in the same way you did with the other noodles, or you could boil the noodles separately and combine them with the heated soup - your choice! Bon appetit!

Chicken Ravioli with Sage Butter Sauce

For a special occasion this week, D & I decided to use the pasta machinery that D1 got for us... I posted pictures on my old blog but it is some tricky machinery so I will gladly repost!

So! Here's a little romance for ya - back in the ole 2009, D & I were in Rome, Italy for our 1 year anniversary. We went to a FANTASTIC restaurant and had amazing food... Dennis ordered the pumpkin ravioli and he was never the same again. He talks about it all the time. So we decided to try pumpkin ravioli.

At this point you might notice that the title of this post is chicken ravioli. Yea. The grocery store was OUT OF PUMPKIN! Not even real pumpkin, just canned pumpkin - that's all I wanted, and I was denied. So I had to improvise. I knew we had chicken at home, so I grabbed parmesan and sage for the sauce and then I peaced out.

I looked up some chicken filling recipes when I got home and found one that looked pretty easy with the ingredients I already had at home.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter

1 stalk celery, finely chopped

1 carrot, finely chopped

1 small onion, finely chopped

8 ounces boneless chicken breast, cubed

2 tablespoons Chianti

1 egg yolk

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

Salt and pepper

Sauté the celery, carrot, and onion in butter for about 3 minutes, the add the chicken and sauté for 3-4 more minutes, until the chicken starts to brown. Add the Chianti, cook for 2 more minutes, then remove from heat.

Put the whole chicken mixture into the food processor and pulse to chop. It should look kinda like chicken salad when it is done. Pour it into a bowl and add the egg yolk, cheese, salt and pepper. Then use the mixture to fill the ravioli.

We lay out the pasta in sheets and use cookie cutters to make a circle, then put a little lump of the mixture in the circle and fold it in half. Press the edges down to seal them, then cut the edges with a ravioli cutter.

The finished ravioli... one of MANY.

Once you have all of your raviolis, drop them in boiling water for 6-7 minutes. It takes a long time to make each individual ravioli but it's satisfying to eat them knowing how hard you worked, and it's also really rewarding to hear your guests tell you how awesome your meal is. 

Plate sans salad. Note the Boh.

Now for the Sage Butter Sauce.

Ingredients

4 tablespoons butter

8 sage leaves

1/2 lemon, juiced

1/4 cup grated parmesan

I'm going to post the directions exactly as posted because I kind of just tossed them all together and hoped for the best since I was in a huge rush. It was still really tasty!

Melt butter in a 12 to 14-inch saute pan and continue cooking until golden brown color ("noisette") appears in the thinnest liquid of the butter. Add sage leaves and remove from heat. Add lemon juice and set aside. Drain the pasta, but leaving some cooking water, and gently pour into saute pan and return to heat. Add the cheese, toss to coat and serve immediately.

The spread. Note the sage butter.

ENJOY!

Here are the links for the chicken filling recipe & the sage butter recipe.

Chicken Teriyaki, Yellow Rice, & Cheesy Broccoli

This meal was made back in March after Dennis & I first started dating. We were so proud we sent pictures to his mom, which is the only reason I have such an old meal documented.

It was really simple to make. I think the hardest part is probably timing everything.

The chicken (from what I remember, this was March 2008!) is just a chicken breast, basted with Ken's Steak House Teriyaki sauce. We have some KSH Honey Teriyaki sauce in the fridge right now, so I'm not sure whether we used that or plain teriyaki sauce, but I'm sure either one works.

The rice is also easy enough - yellow rice called "Vigo." We are partial to Success Rice, the boil-in-a-bag kind, so making rice the regular way is annoying now because it always seems to stick to the bottom of the pot. Someday I will find a way to fix this, but not today! The yellow rice packet suggests adding a chicken bullion cube to the boiling water for flavor, which we do, and it makes it very flavorful indeed.

The cheesy broccoli comes from Dennis' mom's recipe. I usually throw some broccoli in a pot with a half-inch of water, put the lid on, and then just check on it occasionally. When it starts to look really bright green, I take a little piece out and taste it. When it has the right consistency, I take it out. I should probably start timing this process, but that would take out the spontaneity factor!!

The cheesy sauce is made of Velveeta, butter, flour, & milk.

1 tbsp melted butter

1 tbsp flour

1 cup milk

Mix ingredients, warm in a pot on the stove, and then add the cheese. I asked Dennis, "How much cheese?" & he said, "As much as it takes..." So basically, to your own taste. Just stir continuously & add slices of cheese slowly until it reaches the consistency that you like.

Voila! Again, the timing can be difficult but it helps if you have an extra pair of hands in the kitchen. I have to thank Dennis for this one as it was his idea & we have had it many times since.