Molly Makes Chicken Noodle Soup

It's hard when you have a friend behind the camera

'cause you're just like, I'm like chattin' with you.

[upbeat music]

Today I'm making classic chicken noodle soup.

This is a whole chicken noodle soup,

meaning we're gonna throw this entire bird

into the pot and we are going to

remove different parts of the bird

as they finish cooking so that none of the meat

is dry and overcooked by the end of it.

So that's what makes this recipe special.

And the key to a really delicious

full flavored chicken noodle soup, is obviously the broth.

So we're gonna spend a lot of time

and care working on the broth.

To begin, always seasoning the chicken before it goes in.

I'm gonna season this pretty heavily, as you can imagine.

And just give it a couple of minutes

to let the salt sort of penetrate and soak into the chicken.

So that the meat itself is actually seasoned

and not just the broth.

We'll set that aside.

[sets tray down]

Momencito.

[water running]

Oops I just got soap on your camera.

So while the chicken sits for a few minutes,

and you could do that up to 24 hours in advance,

so actually be an awesome move on your part

I just didn't do that.

I'm gonna cut up the aromatics that go into this broth.

So it's two whole onions, and you will notice

that I'm leaving the skins on.

You don't have to if you're skeeved out by it.

However the golden hue of the skins

is actually gonna impart a golden color to the broth.

And that's gonna signify like delicious chickeny flavor.

So I recommend you leave them on.

Two carrots, you can peel them if they're nasty,

but these are nice.

I'm just gonna chop off the ends.

And just a super rough chop on these.

[chopping]

To expose some more of their surface area,

so that it flavors the soup.

[drops carrots into pot]

Two celery sticks, also roughly chopped.

[chopping]

Goin' in.

And then I have one tablespoon of whole black peppercorns.

They will ultimately get strained out of the broth

so it doesn't matter that they're whole and not cracked.

And then two heads of garlic,

which I'm splitting crosswise in half

to keep them relatively in tact.

[chopping]

But to expose their flavor.

And those go in skins and all.

Again, it's getting strained out.

[chopping]

No big deal.

All right, and then a couple of sprigs of fresh dill.

We're gonna add dill at the end

for like a little fresh vibrant moment,

but you can also add it to the broth

to impart some of it's flavor.

So the chicken's going into the pot,

nestled on top of everything.

And I'm gonna add 14 cups of water.

So you want basically just enough water

to barely cover the chicken,

so that it's all submerged.

But not so much that the broth is weak and unflavorful.

[pouring water]

Okay so we're going over to the stove

and I'm gonna bring this to a boil.

Which'll take probably 10 or 15 minutes.

And then we're just, we keep on waiting.

Until the chicken breast registers 155.

At which point we will take the chicken out

and rest it until it's cool enough to handle.

And then we'll put the chicken back in,

and then we'll take it out again.

It's a whole thing.

That's all for now.

So, the internal temperature of the chicken is 155,

of the breast, at the thickest part.

So I'm gonna turn this off momentarily

and bring it back over.

And,

now,

we.

[grabs tongs]

Are going to lift this chicken up.

Okay, so one way to do it is to kinda

stick your tongs like right into the cavity

and then tilt it to let some of that broth

drip back into the pot.

And you can always use another like heavy spoon

to kinda help lift.

Just let it drain for a sec,

and then on to your cutting board.

And we will let this rest here

until it's cool enough to handle.

Like five or 10?

[settings tongs down]

So, we are going to break this chicken down now.

Which is a lot easier than it seems,

if you know where all of the kind of

like joint parts are in the chicken

that make it easy to kinda separate it all apart.

So let's just go over the anatomy here.

We are breast side up, so here are the two breasts.

Here are the two wings.

And then here are the two legs

which is thigh plus drumstick.

So, breast meat is white meat

which means that it has the tendency to dry out.

Which is why we're going to remove it

from the carcass now and leave it off to the side.

We'll shred it, and we'll add it back into the soup

later on because we don't want it to cook

any further than it already has.

On the other hand, the legs and the wings

are dark meat, they can handle a little bit more time.

Actually they'll benefit from it.

They'll get really nice, and breezy, and tender,

and the stock will continue to build flavor

while they're in it.

So, we're gonna pull this wing out from the breast.

And then take a knife and just make a cut

right in between the joint.

Oops.

And it comes apart.

So making incisions right where the breast and legs meet.

Come down the side here.

And then you can use your hand

to kinda pop this outta the socket,

which is kinda gross but it's fine.

[popping]

You pop that joint out,

and it will actually just come off by tearing it.

Now we take off the breast meat.

There's a breast bone that runs right down the middle

of the chicken and you're gonna use your knife

to sort of carve away the flesh

from both sides of that bone, so leaving the bone behind.

So, first one, just a little to the left

of that breast plate.

I'm making a cut down.

And then I'm following the contour of the carcass,

so angling my knife a bit to carve the meat off.

[cutting]

So there's one breast.

And then I like to actually flip it around

'cause I find it easier to sort of

carve off this way because I'm right handed.

So now, on the other side of the breast.

[cutting]

Making a cut down, and then carving it off

and away from the carcass.

Okay, so two legs, two breasts, two wings,

and the rest of the carcass.

So the carcass is going back in.

There's tons of flavor in the bones,

lots of gelatin, there's meat still left on there.

That has a lot to give still.

We're gonna put the wings also back into the pot.

We're going to take the skin right off of these legs

because as it cooks it'll render,

and there will be a lot fat in it otherwise.

If you want a clear broth you need to take it off.

And the legs go back in.

And we go back over to the stove

and bring this back up to a simmer.

[setting pot down]

[turning oven on]

Kay, this is gonna simmer for 40 minutes,

until the leg meat is impossibly tender,

so just give it time.

So, what's left here are our two chicken breasts.

I'm gonna discard the skin.

And then you can use forks to shred

or I actually just prefer to do it with my hands.

And just shred the meat into little bite size pieces.

Okay, set that aside and we're gonna chop the vegetables

but first let's clean off our cutting board.

[setting board in sink]

[water running]

Oh, what do you know there's new dish soap here.

method.

Gaby.

[Gaby] Yeah?

What's with the new dish soap?

We're trying it out I hope you like it.

[Molly] I like it.

[scrubbing]

It's auditioning.

Just the first time, I think we're gonna love it.

[Molly] Does everyone get it?

We will, hope.

Just you so far.

[Gaby] Smells good, right?

Smells good.

Smells like basil.

It actually smells like basil, like real basil

as opposed to like fake basil.

[Gaby] I like the bottle.

Yeah it's pretty.

[Gaby] Fancy.

J'approve.

[setting board down]

So, now onto the remaining veg.

We have carrots and celery in the broth,

but we also are gonna bring them back

into the picture later on for fresh vegetables

that are just tender and cooked through.

I am gonna peel the carrots for this one,

'cause they'll look nicer,

they're kind of like presentation carrots if you will.

Dunno if you know anything about those.

And we'll just cut these into thin coins.

Very retro.

And then likewise for the celery,

lobbing off the kinda gross end.

So, breast is shredded, veg is sliced.

Now we're just waiting for the chicken legs

to finish braising which'll be another 15 minutes or so.

And then we'll pull that apart,

and strain the stock and then lastly,

and this is the best part.

We'll dump in the ditalini,

and cook the pasta right in the broth

which is nice 'cause it's all happening in one pot.

You don't have to bring pasta water to a boil.

We'll talk about that later.

Let's go check on the soup.

[people talking in background]

I am going to grab these tongs and take a look,

but at this point you can see that the broth

is a very beautiful color.

Kay, so golden hue.

Thanks in part to the skins of the yellow onions,

and the amount of time that this broth's

been in contact with all of that chicken,

all of the bones, the carcass.

It's a beautiful thing.

So, I'm gonna fish around for the legs.

And just take a little piece and see

if it shreds right off which it does.

Which means it's tender, and we're good to go.

So, let's come back over here for a mome'.

Okay, now I'm fishing out these legs.

So there's two of them.

Gonna let those cool for a minute

and in the mean time I'm gonna strain out the broth.

All right, so now that all of the vegetables

and the bones have given everything

that they possibly can to this broth,

we're gonna strain it all out and into a fresh pot.

And we're gonna discard all of this now.

Because it's really pretty lifeless at this point.

But we used it for all that it's worth.

Let's throw this back on the heat

and we'll bring it up to a boil,

and we'll cook our ditalini in there.

[turning on stove]

So now we shred the meat,

the very very tender leg meat.

Which comes off very easily with your hands.

And shred that into the bowl with the chicken breast.

So tender.

Okay, so here's all of our meat that's gonna go back in.

Wash my hands one more time.

[water running]

With my basil soap.

[Gaby] Andy I love you.

I love you Andy.

[water running]

[people talking in background]

[sniffing]

Actually does smell exactly like basil.

I dunno if you guys smelled it, smells like summer.

Okay, I'm chopping dill which I'm gonna stir in

a little bit later on.

There's kind of a lot of dill in this soup,

and that is because I love dill, very simply.

And I think that dill in chicken noodle soup

is one of life's greatest pleasures.

However, if you don't like dill,

you don't need to put the dill in.

You could either leave it out,

or you could use parsley instead.

Or chives.

Cilantro I guess if you wanna go that way.

It's not essential but I think it's nice.

Let's go drop in our ditalini.

The nice thing about ditalini,

is that is cooks very quickly and so you can actually

just cook it right into the pot of broth

as opposed to adding it to

a whole 'nother pot of boiling water.

If you were to use a larger pasta,

like an egg noodle,

or a penne,

or a fusilli or something else,

you would probably wanna cook that separately

just because there'd so much starch

and it would take so long to cook.

That by the time it was cooked,

your broth would be reduced and it would kinda

throw the whole thing off.

I engineered this recipe such that

you don't have to do any of that,

as long as you use a small pasta.

So use ditalini, you could use orzo,

you could use the abc pasta.

Something small, macaroni would be fine.

The stock has just come to a boil,

so I'm stirring in six ounces.

It's not a full box, 'cause this isn't the main event.

Just gonna give it a little bit of body.

We're gonna cook this half way,

so for about four minutes.

Before stirring in all of the vegetables

and the meat that we just picked.

There's a little bit of foam here,

so I'm gonna start skimming again.

[grabbing spoon]

Always be skimmin'.

What are the other small pastas of the world?

[Producer] That's really your area

of expertise I feel like.

That's true.

All right here we go, back in with all of the meat.

And then adding the fresh veggies.

And then we'll just let this cook

another three or four minutes,

until the ditalini is cooked.

And the celery and carrots are tender.

Just taste one more.

[speaking in foreign language]

[setting spoon down]

All right, that was easy, let's go.

Back we go.

Because we haven't really paid much attention

to seasoning yet here, although we did

pretty aggressively season the chicken.

But this is your moment to adjust

the seasoning of the broth.

[sipping broth]

[smacking lips]

Did you guys season the broth?

Just for good measure, not that it needs it.

And then I'm a big fan of lot's of black pepper

in my chicken noodle soup.

And, there goes all the dill.

You want the dill to be nice, and bright, and fresh.

So adding it sort of at the last minute.

You could also just throw it out

on the table and have people add it as they eat.

Okay, let's dish it up.

Making sure to get lots of all the goodness in every one.

Find some of my beautiful little celeries.

My sweet, sweet celery.

And then some pretty dill for garnish, some sprigs.

And then more black pep.

That's all she wrote.

I think what we've learned today

and what makes this chicken soup

better than all the other ones,

is that we spent a lot of time on the broth.

So that's hugely important

in the deliciousness factor of the soup.

And we took a lot of care in being sure

that the chicken breast didn't get overcooked,

which is the bane of my existence.

Is overcooked chicken breast in chicken noodle soup.

So now we have perfectly cooked chicken,

very flavorful broth, tender chicken legs,

just cooked through little slivers of carrot and celery,

lot's of dill, black pepper.

And my cute little ditaline's.

[slurping]

[Producer] And you're taking this home?

I'm actually going home now.

I'm actually leaving now, so goodbye and good luck.

I'm taking all this with me.

I'm gonna go eat this in bed.

But you can't come there.

I can get rid of this now.

[Producer] Yeah.

[dropping things in sink]

That was graceful.