Zaynab Makes Gingery Chicken Noodle Soup

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Growing up after school, I would always make myself Ramen

and my sister one day like brought out these

yellow Maggi masala instant noodles.

And ever since that day,

they've been probably my favorite instant noodle.

I wanted to develop a recipe that was

like similar to those

and invoked that like nostalgic taste for me.

Just like those Maggi Instant Masala noodles,

there's like a very spice forward broth

and that like little spiciness

and golden hue is just like really gorgeous.

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We're gonna start by seasoning one pound of chicken thighs.

We're using bone in and skin on,

that's gonna add a ton of flavor to the broth

and also prevent things from like overcooking.

I'm gonna season it with salt.

I wanna give the chicken a chance to sit so that the salt

sort of permeates and season the inside.

We don't just want like a spicy broth,

we also want seasoned chicken.

The chicken skin and fat adds a ton

of flavor to the actual broth.

For the scallions, we're using a whole bunch,

and I went with scallion because they're really easy to cut

and I never cry.

And then we've got six garlic cloves,

we're just gonna thinly slice those.

And to keep things fast,

you definitely don't need to like chop them,

and it's kind of nice to have them floating in there.

For the ginger, I'm using two inches of ginger.

I personally never peel my ginger

and I know that bothers people,

but it doesn't have like a papery skin

like an onion or garlic.

So for me it's not really bothering me.

It's so thin and it's very fused on

that it's almost like more effort than it's worth.

But the ginger is gonna not only flavor the broth,

but ginger is one of those ingredients

that like my mom and grandmother always made me eat

when I was sick.

I've got three carrots.

Honestly,

these do not seem like they need to be peeled to me

so I'm not gonna do it, they're not that dusty.

I'm just gonna give them a rinse and that should be good.

Carrots are super classic in chicken noodle soup.

The sweetness of the carrots also plays really well

with like the savoriness of the curry powder,

so it's a good choice.

You could also do sweet potato,

you just would need to drop them a bit sooner

since they take a little bit longer to cook than carrots.

I want them to have like a nice visual presence in the soup

so I'm cutting them on the bias.

I love lime.

You could use lemon here, but we just wanna brighten up

the broth a little bit towards the end.

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I'm gonna put a tod over medium heat

and heat up a tablespoon of olive oil.

Now that the oil is like nice and heated up,

we're gonna go in with our aromatic,

that's the ginger, garlic, and scallions.

I'm gonna season them with a little bit of salt

to help draw out the moisture,

and we're just gonna saute that for like four to six minutes

to get some color on them.

Browning equals flavor,

so that's gonna help build the base of our stock.

We have like some color forming on the bottom of the pan

and the garlic has a little bit of color

around the edges too.

So now this is the perfect time to add the curry powder,

and we're using one tablespoon of curry powder.

I love using curry powder for this

because it's like a shortcut ingredient.

It's got a ton of ingredients within it

and it has so much flavor.

There is cumin, coriander, cinnamon, fenugreek,

all in that one spice blend.

There's a ton going on.

That's what really makes it the most similar to those

instant masala Maggi noodles.

I'm also gonna add some black pepper at this point.

Once you can smell the curry powder,

you know you're ready to add the broth,

and that's going to help lift up

all of that dark brown fond on the bottom.

So we have four cups of chicken broth

and three cups of water,

and we're gonna bring that to a boil

so that we can poach our chicken.

So now that the stock is at like a rapid boil,

we're ready to add the chicken.

It's been sitting, we seasoned it earlier,

so it's good to go straight in.

We're using one pound of chicken

which is usually about two chicken thighs.

We're gonna drop it in and drop the heat to medium

so that we can maintain like a gentle simmer.

You don't need to hook these aggressively,

we're gonna let them go low and slow for like

18 to 22 minutes until they're fully cooked through.

The chicken's been cooking at a gentle simmer.

I can tell just by looking at it

that it's cooked through it's nice and firm.

I'm gonna pull it and let it rest

while we cook the carrots and the noodles.

So all of the fat from the chicken has like

rendered into the broth and it looks so good.

I'm gonna add the carrots at this point and let them

go for like three minutes before we add the noodles.

So for the noodles, I'm using fresh wheat noodles

so we're using Ramen today.

You could use a dried Ramen noodle as well.

We're using eight ounces.

You don't wanna use a noodle that's gonna take longer

than like four, five minutes to cook

because they're gonna absorb too much of the stock

and release too much starch,

and you'll end up with something that's like

thicker and stodgier,

and we still want this to be like a brothy noodle soup.

These are gonna take like two, three minutes to cook

which is the perfect amount of time

for these guys to sort of wilt down a little bit in there.

So we're adding all of those scallion batons.

I'm just gonna stir a little bit to loosen up

the noodles and that looks great.

I'm gonna set a timer for two minutes

which is how long this particular brand takes,

but it'll be anywhere from like two to four.

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So I'm just gonna discard the skin,

it's a little bit like rubbery since we poach the chicken.

And you can do this with two forks or your fingers.

You can see like the chicken is very tender and juicy,

and that's just because we cooked it really low and slow.

Then you just wanna shred it

into, I like larger pieces, but whatever you prefer.

The larger pieces are nice

'cause you can really taste the chicken.

I do feel like it is easier to do

with like the help of your hand,

the two forks thing kind of frustrates me.

That's the last of it.

So I'm doing about a tablespoon of lime juice to start,

that's like usually half of a lime.

I personally find that the the lime juice

pairs really well with the curry powder.

Ooh.

Honestly, doesn't need more salt.

It's perfect, it's nice and bright.

A tablespoon of lime juice is just how I like it.

I just love the color of the stock, it's so pretty.

It's got like that gorgeous golden hue

from the curry powder.

Let me get some carrots

and some of those scallion greens too.

Woo.

And then I'll go in with some noodles as well.

And then I'm just gonna top it with

some of those pieces of shredded chicken.

And to finish, I'd just like to add

a little bit of extra black pepper,

and then a little bit of extra lime too.

And that's it, this is my gingery chicken noodle soup.

Hmm, it's so good.

It's warming, it's bright from that like lime juice

right at the end, and it's really well balanced overall.

It's super savory and really flavorful.

As intended, it does remind me

of those Maggi Instant Masala noodles,

but it just feels more like a

substantial wholesome dinner now.

If you're sick or cold,

and you're craving something really comforting and warming,

this is a really great option.