- Dice up half an onion, 2 carrots, a couple of garlic cloves, and grate at least 1 tsp of fresh ginger. If I have shallots on hand, I'll dice up one of those, too.
- Salt and pepper 1/2 of a chicken breast and cook it in a pan with the fat of your choice. Set aside on a cutting board.
- Add a little more fat to pan you cooked chicken breast in and then add your onion, carrot, garlic ginger and shallot. Saute until onions are translucent. If I have leftover cooked veggies from dinners in the fridge, I add them now and then saute for another minute or two.
- If you have any spices or herbs you'd like to add for extra flavor, this is the time to do it! Drop them in with your sauteed veggies and stir to coat and heat them up, releasing their flavors. I find I get more flavor out of herbs and spices when I add them before liquids then I get when adding them at the end. Salt and pepper, however, should be added at the end.
- Add 3 - 4 cups of Kitchen Basics Unsalted Chicken Cooking Stock and bring up to a boil.
- Once stock and veggies are boiling, add a handful or 2, at the most, of your choice of pasta, turn the flame down so that stock just simmers and cook until the pasta is al dente. I pick a small pasta, like ditalini, alphabets, mini shells, mini farfalle, orecchiette, or elbows if that's the smallest I have. You can even break up spaghetti into small pieces. Add a pasta too big or too much pasta and it will absorb all or most of your stock.
- While pasta cooks, dice up your chicken breast.
- When pasta is al dente, turn off the heat, add in your diced chicken breast to warm it back up and taste your broth. Do you want to add salt and or pepper? I add both, to my taste.
Depending on how much I serve myself, I get 3 - 4 bowls from this. If I have a chicken or turkey carcass around, I'll make a pot of stock from that, make a big pot of soup without the pasta, and freeze in quart-size, zip-top bags. Take out when you are ready to eat, thaw, bring up to boil, toss in your pasta and then simmer until al dente. Or freeze in gallon-size bags and use when you want to take a family a meal.
This sounds amazing!! Thank you my cooking guru!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome!
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