Easy Chicken Noodle Soup || 20 Min Dinner Recipe
This is an easy chicken noodle soup. You don’t need hours to simmer the chicken, because, with this hot water method, you can get a 3-hour simmering result within just 5 minutes; The soup comes out rich creamy and hearty. You will be surprised by how flavorful it is. This recipe is also budget friendly and it is enough to feed a whole family.
Servings: 4 people
Cost: 8
Ingredients
- 2 lb of skin-on bone-in chicken quarters
- 1 tbsp of cooking oil
- 2 inches of ginger sliced thinly
- 4 cloves of garlic peeled and cut in half
- 2 scallions tied into a knot
- 2 shallots quartered
- 1 piece of Jinhua ham optional, can be replaced by a thick cut of bacon
- 2 liters of water
- 5 Shiitake mushrooms
- 6 oz of baby Bok choy
- 4-5 servings of noodles
- 1 tbsp of soy sauce
- 1 tbsp of oyster sauce
- 1/2 tbsp of fish sauce
- 1 tbsp of sesame oil
- 2.5 tsp of salt or to taste
- Diced scallion as garnish
- Lao gan ma chili flake for a spicy kick optional
Instructions
- Preheat the clay pot (or other heavy-duty stockpots) until nice and hot. Add a little bit of cooking oil to sear the chicken and Jinhua ham (optional) until golden brown. This will take a few minutes on each side.
- When you flip the chicken to fry the other side, add the ginger, garlic, shallot, scallions; put them in between the chicken pieces so they can be fragrant. A large amount of ginger will make the soup very comfortable.
- When the chicken is golden brown, pour in 2 liters of boiling hot water. When the boiling water touches the hot clay pot, it will bubble violently which shakes the meat and accelerates the protein dissolution. This will instantly make your broth rich and flavorful.
- Even though the broth is already done but you still have to simmer this on low for about 15 minutes just so the chicken meat can be nice and tender.
- Meanwhile, you can slice the mushrooms and cut some bok choy.
- 15 minutes later, remove the chicken from the broth and let it cool. Discard the aromatics and skim the chicken fat from the broth.
- Add the mushroom slices and 4-5 servings of noodles to the broth and cook for 4-10 minutes depending on the type and thickness of your noodles. You can also cook the noodles in a separate pot and then transfer them into the broth, so it doesn’t thicken your soup. I prefer my noodle soup to be a little bit thick and silky. That’s why I cook it in the broth directly.
- Meanwhile, Take the chicken meat off the bone and shred it into bite-size pieces. Season the chicken meat with soy sauce, fish sauce, oyster sauce, garlic powder, and sesame oil.
- When the noodles are almost done, add the baby bok choy and salt to taste. To make a serving, add noodles and broth along with the chicken meat to the bowl, top with some Lao Gan Ma chili flake for an extra spicy kick. Enjoy!
Video
Notes
Jinhua ham (金华火腿) is optional, but it brings in a rich umami taste. You can use other types of cured meat, with a little bit of fat will be the best.
It is best to have bone-in and skin-on chicken. The skin will help us to create the mallard reaction and the bones will build up the flavor foundation for the broth. I usually use chicken quarters because they are affordable. If you don't like dark meat, you can use chicken breast plus little extra chicken bones.
Any type of noodles will work here (pasta, egg noodles, rice noodles, mung bean noodles, instant noodles...). For your reference, 4-5 servings will be 400-500 grams of fresh noodles or 250-300 grams of dried noodles.