east and west chicken soup

this version had pasta in it, instead of rice

i haven't made soup in a while and i definitely haven't made stock from scratch. so today is a good a day as every to decide to make some.

i started with a roasting hen and a bunch of vegs. vegs included onions, celery, carrots, ginger, and garlic. first i prepped the chicken by cutting it up into pieces (breasts, legs, thighs, and wings) i removed the excess fat and then browned all the pieces in two batches in a large pot with olive oil. after browning the chicken i removed it and tossed in all the vegs which filled up the pot a good 3/4 of the way. i sauted the vegs for a good 10 minutes to really breakdown the fibers before adding the chicken back in and enough water to cover. the vegs had broken down a lot by now so they weren't taking up nearly as much space.

after boiling everything for 20 minutes. i removed the meat and left in the chicken bones to simmer for another 40 minutes. i drained the liquid into a tuperware and discarded all the vegs and bones.

i had to cool the stock overnight to let the fat settle at the top and remove it. the stock wasn't as clarified as i wanted it to be so i strained it through some paper towels to catch the smaller fat globules. what was left was an tasty but bland chicken stock. i used very little salt thus far in the liquid. the meat and vegs were both seasoned before they were browned/sauted. overall the stock had a very rich taste due to all the vegs but had a clean finish due to the removal of the fat (and lack of salt).

thus far i was say this was a very standard western approach to chicken stock. in order to make it more asian. i used riced instead of pasta and added asian mushrooms, more garlic, daikon radish, red chiles, winter onions, extra firm tofu, and soy sauce (instead of salt). the only non-asian ingredient i added was some shallots.

the dish had a very clean finish - mostly due to the red chiles which had a bit of heat at the end of the palate. the biggest asian flavor was definitely the daikon which pretty quickly imparted its flavor on the soup. the cooked chicken from earlier was shredded and added in the last moments so it wouldn't get too tough from over cooking.

the remaining stock was frozen in an ice cube tray so it can be used in the future with dishes requiring some stock.