Cod­dling Soup (serves the masses)

Cod­dling Soup
(serves the masses)

1 large roast­ing chicken
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup chicken stock
herbs to scat­ter (take your pick: basil, rose­mary, gar­lic salt, thyme, or ALL)
3 tbsps but­ter
1 onion, peeled, quar­tered and sep­a­rated
hand­ful small toma­toes
salt and pep­per
1 cup uncooked Man­is­che­witz small noodles

Place your chicken in a large roast­ing pan thor­oughly sprayed with non­stick spray. Pour over the wine and chicken stock. Scat­ter your choice of herbs over the chicken and place the large dol­lop of but­ter just at the top of the breast, so it will run over the whole chicken as it melts. Roast for two hours at 400 degrees, bast­ing if you think about it. Carve off the breast for your din­ner. Pour the cook­ing juices into a gravy sep­a­ra­tor. Do you know about these tools? Here’s one in Amer­ica and here’s one in Eng­land. Nor­mally I sub­scribe to the Lau­rie Col­win rule of hav­ing no item in your kitchen that serves only one pur­pose. The two excep­tions to this are can open­ers and gravy sep­a­ra­tors. It looks like a mea­sur­ing cup, and it is. But it also mag­i­cally makes all the fat in the cook­ing juices rise to the top, where­upon you can pour the good juice out of the spout and leave the fat behind. Do this, and then pour the juices into a skil­let, throw in a table­spoon or so of flour and a half cup of cream and whisk over low heat until there are no lumps. Per­fect gravy for the chicken and what­ever on the side, for your dinner.

Now, after din­ner, remove the rest of the really good meat from the bones and reserve in a dish in your fridge. Throw the car­cass into a large stock­pot, cover with water and lots of salt, and boil low for the rest of the evening while you go about the house putting dirty horsey clothes in the washer and clean­ing up cat barf. Every once in awhile, poke at the chicken with a spoon to help it fall apart and fla­vor your broth.

When the soup has boiled a long time, say a cou­ple of hours, strain it through a colan­der into another stock­pot (I know that sounds obvi­ous, but can I tell you that once in a fog late at night I actu­ally strained my pre­cious broth right down the drain? don’t let it hap­pen to you). Refrig­er­ate overnight and then skim off the fat that rises to the top. Cut up the reserved chicken and add the noo­dles to the broth, bring to a nice sim­mer and test for salt.

Noth­ing is more com­fort­ing. Enjoy.

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