I like to experiment in the kitchen a lot. It's only food. Who cares if the potatoes are a little overdone or if the dish is a wee bit too spicy. Too much garlic? No such thing. Well, there *used* to be no such thing. Now I know better (thanks, worst hummus ever!).
Sometimes when I attempt a new dish, I start to fancy myself the second coming of Julia Child, but in my case, I don't need no stinking school to master cooking. Pshaw. It's my God-given talent, or so I think. It's usually in these moments, these manic episodes of quasi-foodie pretense, that I commit my most spectacular failures. Usually those failures occur in the form of burnt consumables, but they often happen with completely unbalanced flavors that render the dish inedible by anybody but my husband Sean, who will eat pretty much anything.
Which brings me to my point. Sean just had surgery on his face, and it hurts him to chew, so he's on a soft foods diet, nothing too spicy. I decided to try making chicken noodle soup. It's not rocket science, but given my tendencies for massive kitchen cock-ups, I'd rather just go the Campbell's route, dig? But I'm off work today, and I've got nothing better to do but watch Grey's Anatomy DVD's and play World of Warcraft, so why not.
I couldn't find a recipe I like online, so here's what I'm going to try.
1 chicken, cut into parts (or go lazy and get country style), giblets set to the side
1 cup diced onion
1/2 cup diced celery, plus 2 stalks roughly chopped
1/2 cup diced carrots, plus 2 carrots roughly chopped
A few cloves of garlic, 3 or 4 smushed, 1 or 2 diced
1 shallot, diced
A couple tablespoons of bouquet garni
Cajun seasoning to taste (but on the light side if you're making this for somebody whose face has been recently sliced open)
2 bay leaves (whose purpose I haven't quite figured out, but I've got them, so why not?)
1 tsp marjoram
1 tsp tarragon
Egg noodles (the quantity? I've got no freakin' clue)
Olive oil
Butter (once again, no idea how much)
Flour (same untold amount as butter)
Black pepper to taste
So here's what I've done so far.
1. Take your chicken and roast it in pieces. Rub it down with olive oil, a tablespoon or so of the cajun seasoning, and a tablespoon or so of bouquet garni. Cook it at 400 degrees for about an hour or until the chicken is quite well done.
2. Take your giblets (and mine included a bonus breastbone! YAY!) and stick em in a big pot with two quarts of water, some cajun seasoning, marjoram, a bay leaf, tarragon, and your roughly chopped celery and carrots, and the four smashed cloves of garlic. Stick it on medium for, I dunno, an hour?
And here's what I'm planning on doing.
3. Once the chicken is done, take it out of the oven and let it cool down. Feel free to snack on the wings because there isn't a lot of meat on them anyway. Also, you don't really need the legs, so eat them (or set them aside). Chop up the breasts and thighs and set them aside. Oh and save the juices from the pan. That's good stuff.
4. Drain the liquid from the pot o guts and set it aside. If you happen to know any nasty people, let them eat the giblets (ugh). Otherwise, discard the stuff that you just lovingly boiled.
5. Wipe out the pot that you used for the make-shift stock. Go get, oh, I don't know, three tablespoons of butter? That sounds good. Melt three tablespoons of butter and add your onions, celery, carrots, diced garlic and shallots. Cook em until they're softened, I don't know, maybe 10 minutes?
6. Once the onions are kind of clear (and ideally before the garlic burns), throw in three tablespoons of flour and create a roux. Once it reaches a color you find pleasing and the room starts smelling nutty, stir in the makeshift stock and chicken drippings. Add the chicken.
7. Now, here's where I have no idea what's going to happen. Maybe two cups of noodles? I think I'll make sure that the veggies are fully cooked before adding the noodles since I don't want to overcook those. Overcooked veggies > overcooked noodles.
8. Taste frequently and adjust spices accordingly. Oh yeah, go ahead and add another bay leaf. Maybe some parsley. That would be pretty good. Keep extra stock on hand in case your stuff boils down too hard.
9. I'm assuming that once the noodles are done, so is the soup? Well I guess we'll see, shall we?
I think I'm about to move on to step 3 once I get motivated. I'm comfy, and this shit isn't going to burn anyway.
Just checked on the patient (my husband, not the chicken), and he was sleeping blissfully. Now it appears that he's smelled food and is going to move in its general direction. If it were me, the only movement I'd make right now would be towards the bottle of vicodin.
Ok, that's it. I hope it doesn't suck. It's probably going to make a shitload of soup, and that's ok with me if it's good. So long as I can get the noodles and veggies cooked right, I sincerely doubt this is going to fail. In fact, it might be one of my most triumphant experiments ever.
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