“And Tom brought him chicken soup until he wanted to kill him. The lore has not died out of the world, and you will still find people who believe that soup will cure any hurt or illness and is no bad thing to have for the funeral either.” John Steinbeck in the Grapes of Wrath.
(My vegan and vegetarian friends may wish to avert their eyes from the following. I promise to return to my generally vegan, well certianly vegetarian friendly prose in due course…)
Sadly, all is not peaches and cream at the Ford Seymour Ford home. I have a cold or some kind of bug. At about eight days (A cold is, as everyone knows, supposed to last about seven days, unless you seek treatment, in which case it lasts about a week, so maybe some other kind of bug), my bug has settled into a vague unpleasantness mostly involving a running nose, a cough, and that occasional need to visit the restroom. Critical brain function appears only slightly less optimal than normal, of course predicated on a not particularly high level base line.
But, now, Jan is showing pretty much the same symptoms as I did at the beginning of my descent into the bardo realms of the common cold. Or, whatever kind of bug it is…
This is not good.
First, our daily saunter down to the beach for a leisurely and “healthy” stroll has been postponed for the duration. As an aside, we did try a truncated version yesterday, but were already watching Jan’s pre-symptoms presenting even as I’ve settled into the general annoyance place. But not for the next while…
Also, feeling bad, as it is hard to avoid figuring out from whom she caught her bug, I am thinking comfort food for dinner. And of course my first thoughts are bring out the big guns with chicken noodle soup.
It appears among the earliest recommendation of chicken soup for medicinal purposes traces to around the year 60 when Nero’s physician Predacious Dioscorides recommended it as a treatment for respiratory illness. In the twelfth century the great Moses Maimonides, not only a rabbi and theologian, but also a physician prescribed it in his “On the Cause of Symptoms.” Of course chicken soup is known as “Jewish Penicillin” and I’m sure they wouldn’t allow people to say that if it didn’t have curative powers.
I’ve read that the actual combination of chicken and noodles in the soup, or, at least its place in our popular Western imagination is all thanks to Campbell’s famous (in some circles notorious) sodium laden canned product, which hit the market in 1934. At first it was called Noodle Soup with Chicken, and sold, but within five years Campbell’s marketers hit on the right name, “Chicken Noodle Soup,” as we now all know it.
And, as far as I’m concerned with that magic combination we have the perfect medicinal soup.
(A very dear old friend once suggested that science has determined that one needs in addition to the chicken noodle soup, an inexpensive sparkling white wine. Those of a scientific turn should keep this in mind…)
Now. I’m sick, if not terribly sick, too. So, the work should be kept relatively minimal. What I think this means is that the ideal recipe uses pre-cooked rotisserie chicken. It should not be sodium laden. And the broth, of whatever origin (again I’m sick, so from scratch isn’t going to happen, although it is a call to think of those true cook friends who keep a store of their own home made for such emergencies) needs to be kept in mind not as an afterthought but as quite important. America’s Test Kitchen recommends “Swanson Certified Organic Free Range Chicken broth,” while warning these nationally produced products are constantly being reformulated. Lynne Rossetto Kasper of the Splendid Table recommends “Kitchen Basics Chicken Cooking Stock.” In our household I’ve been partial to “Kitchen Basics Unsalted Chicken Stock,” which, has no added salt, bringing the sodium levels down dramatically, and tastes pretty good. I’ve found it a bit easier to find than the particular type of Swansons, and do note it isn’t their more common version.
We’ve already established the chicken is going to be pre-cooked. Just about every mega mart offers some rotisserie chicken. In our Long Beach neighborhood an early discovery were the grilled chickens available at our neighborhood Northgate Gonzalez Market. Whole Foods is more expensive, but you also know their chickens had a better life than most. I like using both white and dark meat, gives the dish a tad more complexity.
Vegetables are important. But, not too many. Same with noodles. Actually, the same with the chicken. Me, gotta have some carrots, some celery, onion and lots and lots of garlic. Many additional options out there, of course. If you’re getting adventurous, don’t forget different vegetables require different cooking times.
Noodles are your choice. I have a preference for egg noodles, and while yolkless is okay, it does come with a flavor loss. At the very least this will be the last ingredient to add. The real cool people apparently actually cook their noodles separately, and only add when serving.
A judicious use of herbs is recommended. Some good ones are tarragon and parsley.
All this said, here’s a basic recipe based on my experience, stealing from everyone who seems like they know what they’re doing.
Ingredients
1/2 whole chicken, rotisserie cooked, skinned, meat stripped from bones
4 cups fluid. I like three cups chicken stock, one cup white wine
A bit less than a cup of diced white or sweet onion
4 garlic cloves, diced
a bit less than a cup of celery, chopped
1/2 cup of carrots, chopped
6 oz of egg noodles
1/4 teaspoon dried tarragon
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 lemon juiced
salt & pepper to taste
small quantity of olive oil
Preparation
Heat a pot, we use a dutch oven, medium low.
Sautee onion in olive oil for two minutes or so, add garlic, sauté another minute, or so.
Pour in fluids.
Add celery & carrots.
Simmer half an hour
Add chicken
Add tarragon, parsley, salt & pepper
Bring to a boil, then simmer for fifteen, twenty minutes
Add lemon juice, stir
Add noodles, let cook minimum time on package
Serve
Goes great with crusty bread. If the tummy allows garlic toast can be a real treat.
We usually include a simple green salad, as well…
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In