Anne Can Cook

I thought I was doing really well this winter. I started taking vitamins that were chock full of vitamin C. I was giving those vitamins the credit for my wellness this year. I had a sore throat for about five minutes in January, but now I'm getting a full blown cold. Curses.
Desperate times call for chicken noodle soup. It's the end all be all of cure-alls. Therefore, I decided to go for it for tonight's dinner.
I clicked through a few recipes, but nothing quite grabbed me. I decided to wing it.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, you can make soup out of anything. Armed with this adage, I took to my kitchen.

There were a couple factors in play. I decided I wanted to do curry-ginger as the flavor background, because curry has the heat to clear my sinuses and ginger is very good for you. I also had a rotisserie chicken that I had purchased as an experiment for the purposes of shredding the meat (remember my bone-in chicken phobia)? Lastly, I had vegetables in my fridge that were begging me to use them.

I started with a mirepoix. For those of you who don't spend your time watching way too much Food Network, a mirepoix is a mix of celery, carrot, and onion. My begging vegetables in question just happened to be baby carrots and half a white onion. I gave each ingredient a rough chop with some garlic.

After the mirepoix, I shredded some of the breast and leg meat from the chicken. I think I ended up with about a cup. I gave that a rough chop as well.

In my soup pot, I heated up a couple Tbsp. olive oil. Once that was sufficiently hot, I tossed in the mirepoix and garlic.

I let that hang out for about five minutes, then added the curry powder. The great thing about curry powder is that there is a million different varieties. Curry does not always mean hot. There are plenty of curries out there that are mild and somewhat sweet which are just as flavorful as hot curries. If heat is not your thing, I suggest a Garam Masala or a mild yellow curry powder. I like heat, so I go for a medium intensity red curry powder. My curry of choice is always Penzeys Rogan Josh.

After the curry powder was all incorporated, I tossed in the chicken. I gave everything a good stir, then added the chicken stock. At this point I seasoned the soup with ginger, ground pepper, salt, and some cayenne pepper. I brought it to a boil, them reduced the heat to low and let it simmer for about 40 minutes. At that point I tossed in some uncooked, broken spaghetti noodles. I broke them into about 2" pieces. I let the soup go for another ten minutes or so before I decided it was ready to serve.

Remembering that I just eyeballed everything, here are the estimations for the recipe:

1 cup mirepoix
5 garlic cloves, chopped
1 cup cooked chicken, roughly chopped
3 Tbsp curry powder
4-5 cups chicken stock
1 Tbsp ginger
Salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper, to taste
1 cup of uncooked noodles

Once everything is chopped, heat up a few Tbsp. olive oil in a soup pot. Cook the mirepoix and garlic for a few minutes to soften, then add the curry powder. Stir well. Add the chicken and chicken stock. Season with salt, pepper, and spices. Bring to a boil, then reduce and simmer for about 40 minutes until the vegetables are tender. Add the noodles and simmer for an additional ten minutes or until the noodles are cooked. Eat. Feel less sick.

As always you can augment this anyway you want. Are you a more broth or less broth person? Do you prefer more vegetables or more chicken? However you want to make it is how you should make it. I think that's how people really learn to cook-by taking recipes and making them their own.