My Chicken Soup is Flat! Help!

Deadly Sushi

Deadly Sushi

Formerly The Giant Mojito
OK.... I didnt plan on making it in the 1st place. I get home and there are 4 chicken breast defrosting.

So I put it in a large pot, put a bag of frozen vegies in too. Then I put in a can of tomato paste, garlic and ground ginger. NO salt, but put in pepper.

Then at the end I put in pasta noodles.

Well its all fair at the end. Nothing special. What else can I do to it? :confused:
 
OK! Where the hell IS everyone tonight! Screw the fireworks, cook out, drinking and your company thats over sucking on your Cheetos! I need soup help here! :lol:
 
LOL hey there fishy!! LOL

My Chicken Soup

Chicken Soup Stock:

1 Whole chicken or 4 whole chicken breasts - with bones & 8 chicken wings*
Leeks - green part for stock - clean well in water
Carrots - 2 unpeeled
Celery - 2 stalks whole
Onions - 1 large - unpeeled and halved
Parsley - stems - washed well
Pepper corns - (I use 5 corn blend) I put them in a tea ball for easy removal later - to taste
Salt - to taste

Place all in lg. pasta pot with insert. Bring to boil then lower heat and simmer 2 - 3 hours, the longer the better and chicken falls off the bones. Remove insert from pot (which will strain everything out in one shot) remove chicken pieces and throw away the vegetables. Leave stock in pot. Clean chicken making sure you get all the bones out. Chop into bite sized pieces. Set aside.

Chicken Soup:

Homemade Chicken stock
Cleaned chicken meat
Leeks - white part - chopped small and clean well in water
Carrots - peel and chopped small
Celery - cleaned and chopped small
Onions - chopped small
Parsley - cleaned chopped fine
Potatoes - peeled and chopped small
Salt and ground black pepper - taste stock and adjust to taste

Place all in pot. Bring to boil then lower heat and simmer till vegetables are tender. Taste and correct the salt and pepper if needed. (Add canned chicken stock if necessary.)

Rice - brown or white - cooked - place in bowl and serve soup over the rice.
Grated Romano and Parmesan cheeses - add to top of the bowl of soup.

My mom would sometimes make tiny meatballs made of ground beef, fine chopped onion and garlic, bread crumbs, parsley chopped fine, grated Romano and Parmesan cheese and egg. She would roll tiny meatballs and fry them in a small amount of oil till brown then drain. She would add them to the soup at the end.

She would also sometimes add chopped fresh tomato and/or sweet baby peas to the soup. It all depended on how she felt that day and had on hand.

*Tip: If you buy whole chickens and cut them into parts save the backs and the wing tips (you can't eat the very tip of the wing but they add great flavor to stock) . Throw them in the freezer. The next time you make soup throw them in with your chicken when you make the stock.
 
did you use stock or water?

if you used water, you'll need salt, simple as that. bouillon will give it the needed salt plus chickeny flavor.

after that, you can clean up the flavor with a good handful of fresh parsley and/or cilantro, or you can get it dirty with a good splash of hot sauce.
 
chowhound said:
Sorry. You lost me when you put in the tomato paste.
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Um, yeah...me too. I don't think you needed that nor the ginger. For a decent quick-n-dirty chicken noodle soup just start with water & some chicken base/bouillion. Add the chix along with mirepoix; simmer with a tad of garlic, thyme and S&P. Add the noodles at the end.

Sometimes I'll sautee the mirepoix in butter, then add a couple TBSP of flour and cook it into a roux. Then add the stock. This gives the soup a bit of body.

NOTE: You probably won't need salt if you use any type of commercial chix base.
 
chowhound said:
Sorry. You lost me when you put in the tomato paste.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I would ditch that for some sofrito.

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Chicken broth instead of water (canned is fine -- try Swanson's Natural).

Instead of a bag of frozen (mixed?) veggies, try onions, carrots, celery (mirepoix) sauteed until slightly caramelized, & add a bit of salt.

A little parsley and a pinch of herbs adds a nice touch.

Don't put in the noodles until just before serving.
 
:shock: Yikes!!!

ok ok, I messed up. :hide2:

I didnt have celery but I did have carrots and onions. I do think the tomato paste added a nice flavor though. Regarding the salt, I put some in per bowl. I wish the breasts had more skin on em. It would have added a lot more flavor.
 
Deadly Sushi said:
:shock: Yikes!!!

ok ok, I messed up. :hide2:

I didnt have celery but I did have carrots and onions. I do think the tomato paste added a nice flavor though. Regarding the salt, I put some in per bowl. I wish the breasts had more skin on em. It would have added a lot more flavor.
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ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm no comment!! ok i slapped myself
 
Salt!

Bullion = salt
Chicken base = salt
Packaged stock = salt.

Many things can add to flavor and make good soup but you said in your post that you didn't add salt. Just add it and taste!

Here's my chicken soup. If you want instructions (not a recipe), I'll post.
 

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without benefit of bones...you soup is just lacking in chicken spirit..add some chicken stock/boullion to it.
 
thanks for the visual!! now i want chicken soup!! good chicken soup not road food so called chicken soup!!
 
I added the link for you, SS. When you want to post a link, go to the page you want to link to, then highlight and copy the http:// address at the top of your browser. Now go to the page where you want to post the link, put your cursor where you want the link to go and then left click and select paste. That's it!
 
chowhound said:
Sorry. You lost me when you put in the tomato paste.
Click to expand...

Yes me to but I would of added fresh vegetables to it such as celery, carrots, potatoes, onions, as well as other root vegetables. For spices bay leafs, garlic, thyme, tarragon, parsley, basil. Other choices would be oregano, marjoram, cilantro etc. Salt and pepper of course as those are givens in most cases you could also try some poultry seasoning though I don't care for it others do.

I also recommend either using a chicken broth or making it with a whole chicken as well as those things listed above.
 
I like to put turnips in my chicken soup for added flavor when they are cheap, but otherwise I never make it without using a whole chicken for the best flavor. I saute the trinity then begin throwing everything else in, in no particular order. It's done when the meat is falling off the bones, and I just strain the whole pot through a wire mesh strainer into another pot, then add new veggies as desired. I strip all meat from the carcass, toss the white meat back into the pot in small pieces, then make chicken salad with the remaining meat:

Chicken meat
Mayo of choice
Salt & Pepper
Sweet relish
Sprinkling of celery seeds

Mix it all in a bowl and have some good sammies from the leftover meat. there are no quantities because I have never measured anything in the 35 years I've been making this. I just know by looking when enough is enough.

Here is my soup turned into Italian Wedding Soup with the resulting chicken salad as well, and the ubiquitous Italian Bread that everyone loves.

P1010391.jpg
 
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