MONDAY RECIPE POST - ASIAN CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP

We made this for the first time a couple of weeks ago, on Friday, January 6th, 2023.  We have tried lots of chicken noodle soups, but not many with Asian flavorings and it was excellent.  It's fun to look for recipes on all the available food blogs.  I have never found one for us that hasn't been anything but as good as it looks.  This one came from Cooking Classy hosted by Jaclyn.   You can find the original here.  I always highly recommend visiting them, as there are many, many delicious looking recipes, with great tips and photographs.  I have already found another one I want to try, Salmon Rice Bowls, but that's for another Monday share.  

The suggested time from prep to table is 50 minutes. It always takes me a bit longer between doing the prep work and reading the recipe.  Still only a little over an hour, and that's with me moving fairly slowly, and sitting at the kitchen table with cutting board in front of me and sipping a cup of tea in between.

Asian Chicken Noodle Soup - 4 servings

493 calories per serving

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

1 cup diced carrots (about 2 large)

6 green onions, sliced (1 1/2 cups)

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 Tbsp minced peeled ginger

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts

Salt and freshly ground white or black pepper

6-1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth

2-1/2 tablespoon of soy sauce, or more to taste

2 tablespoon mirin

2 tablespoon rice vinegar

1 tablespoon Sriracha

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

3 cups slightly packed chopped Napa cabbage

6 ounces crimini mushrooms, sliced

1 (4.3 ounce) package dry ramen, seasoning packets discarded

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

Heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. 

Add carrots and sauté 3 minutes then add green onions, garlic and ginger and sauté 2 minutes longer, set aside.

Cover chicken with plastic wrap and pound to an even thickness using the flat side of a meat mallet. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat.

Season both sides of chicken lightly with salt and pepper, then add to pot and cook until browned on both sides, about 2 1/2 minutes per side.

Pour in chicken broth, soy sauce, mirin, rice vinegar, Sriracha, and sesame oil, then pour carrot mixture into soup mixture.

Bring to a boil then reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer until chicken has cooked through (center should register 165 degrees on an instant read thermometer), about 5 - 7 minutes.

Remove chicken breasts from soup and transfer to a cutting board and let rest 5 minutes then cut into strips.

Meanwhile, stir in sugar, cabbage and mushrooms and return soup to a boil. 

Add noodles and cook 3 - 5 minutes longer until noodles are tender. Stir in chicken. 

Serve warm sprinkled with cilantro.

This was a very yummy soup.  We made a few changes.

Instead of using chicken and as we already had a piece of pork ready for our next meal, we used that instead.  We diced it before cooking but on reflection I think it would have benefitted having larger pieces, as shown with the chicken in the original.  The pork kind of disappeared though it more than probably added to the flavor of our soup.  I will stick with chicken next time.

We replaced the ramen with udon noodles, for the same reasons.  We had it on hand and they needed to be used.  They were fresh noodles and we didn't deviate from the cooking process, time, etc.

Instead of crimini mushrooms we substituted the small white button ones, for the same reasons as above.

We also replaced the fresh grated ginger with Dorot’s Crushed Ginger cubes which we keep in the freezer.  We have also used their garlic, though not this time.  

Added note: Ginny’s comment reminded me that the above might be hard to find.  For us who live in the States, their company has a product finder which tells you a store’s location in your area that stocks them (overseas there could be an equivalent though different brand).  This website page is at the following: 

https://dorotgardens.com/where-to-find/ 

For Ginny’s area they mentioned Harris Teeter, Food Lion, Whole Foods and a couple more, and showed the particular product available which you can click on to see.

We also added extra broth.  It called for 6-1/2 cups by my dear other half wanted the extra and we used two 4-cup cartons, which was great.  He said he would like to make a double portion of the soy-mirin-sesame mixture next time, because of the extra liquid.

We added a few more carrots.

With the extra ingredients we have leftovers for at least another two days.  Love cooking but it is always nice to have a day now and again where kitchen time is practically zero.

Definitely making this again.  

We both gave this soup a ten out of ten.  

Thank you for visting today.

Have a great week and

Bon Appétit!