Well what could be better for your tummy and head than chicken noodle soup with lots of fresh herbs? It's a double whammy of resuscitation, with a bonus of fat, slippery noodles. Personally, I eat hot soup all summer long. But I know that many people find soup unappealing in hot weather.Let me just point out that there is something about the deeply flavored broth and head-clearing herbal fragrance that makes this chicken soup feel particularly summery. It is based on the noodle soup in the Herbfarm Cookbook, which in addition to featuring some nice recipes, is a very good, well illustrated resource on culinary herbs in general. In fact, it is much handier for this purpose than a lot of self styled "modern herbals".
I encourage you to use a homemade broth for this one, even if that is not usually your thing. I often use canned or boxed broth in cooking, but not for a clear chicken soup. There isn't really much point to this soup, unless the broth tastes intensely of the bird. I wouldn't want to make it the same warm day I make the soup though. Too much steaming hot soup pot hovering. Anyway, it is better to make broth ahead, so you can refrigerate it, and peel the fat right off the top.
If you don't generally keep chicken broth on hand in your freezer, you still might like to make a big pot of it from time to time , and freeze it to add some wonderfulness to other projects. You don't have to commit to doing regularly- but once in a while it is fun to have a hoard of little containers, neatly labeled, to gloat over and plan for. Recently, when my apartment refrigerator died, and I lost a stack of those little containers of chicken broth, I was bereft. I feel somehow reassured, having replaced them.
The broth I used was not entirely a chicken broth; it was partly made from the carcass of a lemony roasted chicken, and partly from a bunch of turkey necks on special at the Iggle. I just love turkey, duck and goose (and, actually partridge) broth, and use other birds in my basic broth whenever I have a chance. (Not so often do I have a partridge carcass to contribute, as you might guess.) I make broth in a large pasta pot, with a drainer insert. Then, when I am done, I can pull out and strain any bones, and the depleted soup veg in one easy shot, leaving the clear stock behind. This one included leek greens. carrots , celery, a parsnip, and bay, thyme and celery leaves in a little bundle. It turned out to be pretty concentrated, with a high bones to water ratio- after 4 hours burbling away on a tiny flame. Ater making my noodle soup, I still have half of the broth left in the freezer.
This is what I used to make 3 servings:
Rich poultry broth 1 quart
sugar snap peas, cut in half 1 cup
thinly sliced leftover roast lemon chicken meat 1 breast
fat haluski type noodles 6 oz. dry
salt and freshly ground black pepper
fresh basil 1/4 cup , in thin strips a/k/a chiffonade
fresh tarragon 2 tbsps minced
fresh oregano or marjoram 2 tbsps chopped
fresh chives 1/4 cup, snipped up with scissors
Bring a pasta pot full of salted water to the boil, add noodles and cook 9 to 12 minutes, or until toothsome. Meanwhile, heat the broth in another, heavy pot. Add the sugar snap peas and chicken, and heat through. Correct seasoning. Drain noodles and add to soup with the fresh herbs. Serve with a fork and spoon and big cloth napkin. This is a whole meal soup. Little parmesan toasts go nicely, or just crusty bread. I like icy water with lemon it it, to drink with soup. Refreshing, therapeutic and warm weather friendly. Naturally, this is even nicer if you feel like making homemade egg noodles.
Hey Lindy -- just wanted to let you know how much I've enjoyed your last several posts. Radishes? Yum! Sour plum sauce? Gotta try it! And soup in any season? Always a good idea! In our house, soup is a food group unto itself; if it weren't for this miracle of broth/water with *stuff* in it, we'd probably starve. So yes, sometime soon I'm going to try your beautiful chicken noodle/herb soup, which looks quite delicate and yet deeply satisfying...
Posted by: Julie | June 21, 2006 at 06:29 AM
Oh, my heavens, does that soup looks delicious! You make a most convincing pitch for eating chicken noodle soup -- something that usually doesn't interest me -- at any time at all. Your version sounds truly delicious.
The clear broth, the big noodles, the herbs, the sugar snap peas -- that picture is good enough to eat!
Posted by: Julie | June 21, 2006 at 08:33 AM
That looks and sounds sooooo good! I will have to give that a try. Thanks so much for sharing.
Posted by: Braden | June 21, 2006 at 10:36 AM
Turkey bones make such great stock. They seem to contain more gelatin than chicken bones.
I don't see much partridge around the places I shop. Do I sense a story there from the old days?.
Posted by: mzn | June 21, 2006 at 03:30 PM
Soup in any season sounds good to me too! This one looks incredibly like summer.
Posted by: Baking Soda | June 22, 2006 at 03:58 AM
I´m always freezing chicken stock, and labelling the containers. I go crazy if I don´t have it to hand. But I don´t usually go for soup in summer. You´ve convinced me. Lots of herbs in the fridge soup, so I´m definitely going for it.
Posted by: lobstersquad | June 22, 2006 at 07:56 AM
All I had in the fridge when I got off the train at 3:00 AM today was some chicken stock in a mason jar and some herbs that were still good, the result was nowhere as gorgeous as your soup, but it hit the spot.
Posted by: steven | June 22, 2006 at 09:35 PM
Julie-Thank you. Those people that don't like soup in the summer? I do not wish to be rude, but it does seem to me that they are , well, wrong.
the other Julie-I hope you like it if you try it, I think you will.
Braden-thank you-you are from Pgh too, no?
mzn-you are a clever lad. There is a bit of a story. It involves my mothers' English cousin Ronnie, and something he called "Marylebone Soup."
Baking soda-Soup and bread. Some of us could live on that diet for a long time.
Lobstersquad -It's a nice secure feeling-a stash of stock. Must be the peasant in me ...I'm most comfortable with a hoard.
steven-sheesh, why is it that travel by train always seems to involve either leaving or arriving in the middle of the night? Hope you had an good time in the big city.
Posted by: lindy | June 23, 2006 at 06:17 AM
What a lovely bowl of soup, Lindy! I was planning to get a chicken at the farmers market tomorrow; now I may have to get two. I freeze chicken broth in little half cup plastic containers, then pop the frozen broth pucks out into a big freezer bag so that we can grab as few or as many as needed for a recipe. Paul used the last one this week, so it's time to replenish the stores.
Posted by: Kimberly | June 25, 2006 at 01:22 AM
Yep, I am from Pittsburgh as well. :)
Posted by: Braden | June 26, 2006 at 10:10 AM