This is a tasty roasted chicken noodle soup with a flavoursome yet light broth, perfect for wintry evenings when this was cooked and photographed.
This dish looks deceptively simple, and in some ways it is. The bulk of the work involves the creation of the roast chicken stock and the shallot oil, which combines to give this clear chicken soup a hearty punch of flavour while being pleasantly light.
This recipe itself is tightly timed, so watch out for points in the recipe where you’ll need to start cooking different elements of the dish.
For the time poor, there are definitely ways to shorten the steps involved – see recipe notes.
Roast Chicken Noodle Soup
A clear yet hearty chicken noodle soup to soothe the soul (and the stomach)
Prep Time15 mins
Cook Time2 hrs 45 mins
Servings: 4
Equipment
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Deep roasting pan
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Pot
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Stirring spoon
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Tongs for picking up chicken and other miscellaneous bits
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Mixing bowl x 2 (one for marinading chicken winglets, one for softening noodles)
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Fan-forced oven
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Small non-stick frying pan
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Strainer for noodles
Ingredients
Chicken Soup Base
- 1 chicken carcass
- ½ tsp salt a rough twist or two of the grinder
- ½ tsp white pepper a rough twist or two of the grinder
- water
- 1 stalk spring onion, white parts only
- 1 carrot chopped
- 1 strip dried kombu (kelp)
- 1 tbsp chicken stock powder optional
Shallot Oil
- 1 head shallot finely diced
- ¼ cup peanut oil (feel free to swap it out for a different oil if you have peanut allergies) or enough to cover the diced shallots
Roast Chicken Winglets
- 6 chicken winglets
- 1 tsp light soy
- 1 tsp dark soy
- 1 tsp white pepper
- ⅙ tsp Chinese five spice powder
- ½ tsp sugar
Everything else
- 150 g dried rice stick noodles this is approximately half a pack of standard size Thai rice noodles you can pick up in a supermarket or Asian grocers
- 1.5 l boiling water
- 1 stalk spring onion, green parts only chopped or finely cut with kitchen scissors
- ½ head choy sum Cut into 3 cm pieces
Instructions
Roast Chicken Winglets – Part 1
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Marinade chicken winglets in light soy, dark soy, white pepper, five spice powder and sugar in mixing bowl
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Leave for a minimum of 1 hour
Chicken Soup Base
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Preheat fan-forced oven at 180 °C
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Lightly coat chicken carcass in salt and pepper
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Place carcass in deep roasting pan
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Roast in oven for 15 minutes before flipping to roast for another 10
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Pour water into roasting pan until it covers all the roasted juices and is approximately 2 cm deep
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Leave in oven to roast for a further 60 minutes, while flipping roasting carcass at 15-minute intervals. Make sure water has not boiled out, and add water to original levels as required.
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After the 60 minutes is up, transfer chicken carcass and all the water in the pan into a pot
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Add the chopped carrot, white spring onion bits, strip of kombu and a further litre of water into the pot
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See below section on Roast Chicken Winglets – Part 2
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Boil soup on low heat for another 60 minutes. Allow soup to boil down further until enough soup is left for 2 bowls.
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Make sure you taste the soup prior to serving, and if it lacks flavour, add salt and chicken stock powder as required
Roast Chicken winglets – Part 2
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When the soup has 45 minutes to go, place the chicken winglets on a roasting pan and roast in fan-forced oven at 180°C
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Start the shallot oil after you put chicken in the oven – see below for instructions
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Flip wings at 30 minute mark
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Winglets should now be a nice brown colour as per image. Remove winglets from oven to rest. At this point, you should be ready for the final assembly (see below)
Shallot Oil
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Place diced shallots in a small non-stick frying pan and cover with peanut oil.
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Fry on low heat, stirring shallots occasionally
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Watch for the change of colour. Once the colour of the shallots turn into a slight brown, turn off the fire and leave the shallots and the oil in the pan.
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The residue heat will cook the shallots through until it turns into a rich, caramelised dark brown as per the photograph. Shallots should now be light and crispy, and the oil infused with flavour.
Noodle preparation
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Boil a kettle of water
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Place rice noodles into a mixing bowl, and pour boiled water over until the noodle sticks are covered.
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Leave until the noodles soften. Agitate the noodles occasionally to loosen them.
Final assembly
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Once the noodles have softened but still firm (just a tad before al dente stage), drain and transfer and divide into two bowls
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While the soup is still boiling, poach the chopped choy sum in the soup itself for 2 minutes
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Remove and transfer into bowl on top of the noodles
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Place 3 finished winglets into each bowl on top of the noodles
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Divide the fried shallots and shallot oil into a bowl each on top of the noodles
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Turn off the stove boiling the soup. Remove the chicken carcass and kombu from the soup at the very end
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Spoon soup into each bowl on top of all the ingredients
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Garnish with chopped green spring onion
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Serve while fresh and piping hot
Notes
Shortcuts can be taken with this dish. Instead of roasting a chicken carcass from scratch, one from a leftover roast chicken can be used. This is also a great way to use up leftovers from a previous meal.
Also, instead of making your own chicken stock from scratch, you can also use chicken stock (although the above process does result in a much richer flavour in the stock).
You can also use store bought roast chicken in place of roasting your own.
You can also use store-bought fried shallots, but bear in mind that half the flavour of this dish comes from the shallot oil.
