Chicken (Sort of) Noodle Soup

This very versatile recipe is designed around the chicken-eating habits of your household.

I love the ease of using a store-bought rotisserie chicken. A small rotisserie should yield around two and a half cups of shredded chicken. If you love rotisserie chicken but favor one kind of meat over the other (say, white meat over dark meat), then just enjoy some of your favorite parts, then make soup with the rest of it! Or feel free to devote the whole chicken to the soup, which is how this recipe is written. Just pull off your favorite meat and dice it, then add it back at the end once the soup is cooked.

If you’d rather make the chicken soup base from scratch, you can do that too, by starting with 2 pounds of raw chicken pieces in place of a rotisserie chicken, and making the soup as directed, only simmering for a total of 3 hours instead of 2. 

On the flip side, if you don’t want to make your own broth at all, start with 6 cups of canned or boxed chicken broth and go straight to step 4; add some cooked chicken too, if you like.

Of course, you don’t have to use all of the noodle-like ingredients, either. I appreciate that the zucchini strands are tender, the mushrooms are chewy, and the cabbage is toothsome, but feel free to omit any that you don’t like or don’t have.

Recipe Details: Chicken (Sort of) Noodle Soup

Makes: 6 servings

Total carbohydrates: 6 grams per serving

Active time: 30 minutes 

Total time: 2 hours 45 minutes

Ingredients 

• 1 small (about 1-3/4 pound) rotisserie chicken, meat shredded and bones reserved
• 1 medium onion, peeled and coarsely chopped
• 1 carrot, cut into 1/2-inch-thick coins
• 2 celery stalks, cut into 1/2-inch-thick pieces, plus some of the leaves from inside the bunch
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more to taste
• 1 zucchini, spiralized or shaved into ribbons with a vegetable peeler 
• 1/4 medium head of green cabbage, cut into fine slivers (about 2 cups)
• 2/3 ounce (about 6) dried shiitake mushrooms, rehydrated in boiling water
• Black pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Put the rotisserie chicken bones in a large pot with the onion, carrot, celery, and salt. Add enough cold water to cover it and bring to a boil over high heat.
2. Lower the heat, cover the pot, and simmer the soup gently for 2 hours, adding water as needed to keep the chicken submerged and skimming off any froth that accumulates with a wide spoon.
3. Strain the liquid through a sieve into a clean pot (or into a large bowl and then back into the pot you were using). Season with more salt until it tastes salty and good and soup-like; this might be more salt than you would have guessed. Add whatever of the vegetables and chicken meat you want back to the pot. (People always describe these as “spent” after their long cooking, but I confess to pulling all the chicken off the bones and adding it with all the vegetables back into the soup.) 
4. Bring the soup back to a boil over high heat then add the zucchini, cabbage, and mushrooms (along with their soaking liquid) and cook just until the vegetables are tender, about 10 to 15 minutes. Add a big grinding of black pepper and more salt if needed, then serve hot. 

Photo credits: Catherine Newman