Chicken Noodle Soup – Nature’s Penicillin
Low fodmap chicken noodle soup, a homemade chicken soup like mom used to make, is nothing like making chicken stock. It’s also nothing like a chef’s version of chicken soup.
Ignore recipes that call for browning the vegetables; ignore recipes that say they are making chicken stock; instead, make this true chicken soup recipe because it is what generations of moms and grandmothers have made for their families. It truly is Nature’s Penicillin.
I could never decide what was more heavenly in chicken soup – my mom’s breadcrumb dumplings, my grandmother’s homemade noodles or the Jewish mom’s matzo balls. (Btw, since they now have GF matzo crackers, IBS folks can once again enjoy matzo balls without any embarrassing repercussions. Yay!)
Why We Love Noodles in Our Soup!
We do love chicken noodle soup the most. With the right eggy noodles, it is just heaven to slurp up those wonderful noodles while gulping down that heavenly homemade broth. You can feel your cold disappearing with every bite. And the good news is that it can be low fodmap and still taste as delicious as any other chicken soup.
Even without the garlic and onions and other insoluble vegetables that IBS folk have to eliminate, my chicken soup is still delicious. Sometimes I substitute rice noodles for egg noodles and it is still delicious, kind of like a Pho Vietnamese soup so popular today.
What Kind Of Chicken?
I use a big, fat organic chicken, carrots, celery, salt and pepper. Instead of onions, I use green stems of scallions or spring onions and chopped chives (Use onions if you don’t need to be low fodmap). I also use a handful of fresh herbs such as chopped basil and Italian parsley that add complexity, but don’t take away from the wonderful chicken flavor.
I DO NOT brown the vegetables beforehand and I keep the fat on the chicken because it flavors the soup.
In the end I get several quarts of soup and mounds of tender boiled chicken that I can use in chicken pot pie, chicken tetrazzini casserole, with GF egg noodles or in GF matzo balls. See for yourself what one fat organic chicken can produce for you. No wonder Herbert Hoover won the election when he promised “a chicken in every pot.”
INGREDIENTS:
1 four to five lb. organic chicken
1 lb. chicken parts (wings, necks or backs) optional
5 or 6 scallions (light green stems only)
3 or 4 spring onions, sliced light green stems only
bunch of chives, diced up
1 bunch of celery including the hearts and leaves, cut into large chunks
3 to 4 large carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks
6 sprigs of Italian parsley, coarsely chopped
handful of shredded fresh basil
Salt, pepper and Fody Food Lemon Pepper to sprinkle on the raw chicken
1 tbsp. black peppercorns
1 tbsp. sea salt
8 cups of cold water plus 1 cup
1 pkg. fine egg noodles (GF if needed) or rice vermicelli noodles
DIRECTIONS:
Take out the bag of parts left in the chicken. Rinse the neck and keep for soup. Save other parts for another dish. Rinse the chicken under cold water. Pat dry. Sprinkle some sea salt inside the large cavity of the chicken.
Sprinkle the top of the chicken with salt and black pepper. ( I sprinkle seasoned salt (FODY FOOD’S)on the breast part.) Place the chicken (and parts)in a large soup pot.
Cut up the celery, including the hearts and leaves. Peel and cut up the carrots and slice up the scallions/spring onion light green stems.
Dice up and add the chives, chop the parsley roughly.
Place all the vegetables on top of the chicken in the soup pot. (Ignore the onions in the picture. Picture is from my old blog before I had to go low fodmap. lol )
Add 8 cups of cold water to the chicken and vegetables in the soup pot. Add 1 tbsp. sea salt to the water. Turn the heat to high, cover the pot, and bring the liquid to a boil. At this point, some people like to remove the scum because it looks scary. I myself am not scared of scum and I dare to leave it in. Do not tell my mother this.
After the soup comes to a boil, turn it down to a simmer, keep it covered and simmer for 1 hour. Check to see if the liquid went down too much. You can then add another 1/2 to 1 cup of water. Keep simmering the soup for another 1/2 hour to 1 hour until the chicken meat is very tender and juicy.
Turn off the heat when the chicken is tender. Remove the chicken from the pot and place on a plate to cool a bit. When the chicken meat is cool enough for you to remove it from the bones, remove all the meat and place in a bowl. Place covered bowl in the fridge if using that day or the next day. Freeze for future use.
Pour the soup into a fine strainer that has been placed over a bowl so that the vegetables go into the strainer and the soup goes into the bowl. I fish out the cooked carrots and place them in the strained soup. Refrigerate the soup covered for several hours or until the fat rises to the top and can be removed. I usually let the soup stay in the fridge all day and I use it that night or the next day. If you don’t plan to use the soup right away or the chicken meat , place both soup and chicken meat in plastic containers and freeze until planning to use them.
After the fat has risen to the top of my chicken soup and solidified enough to remove it with a spoon, I remove it.
Adding the Noodles to Chicken Noodle Soup
If using GF fine egg noodles, follow the directions on the package. Drain the noodles in a strainer. I usually rinse GF noodles with cold water, but not regular noodles.
If using rice vermicelli noodles, I bring two cups of water to a boil and then throw in the rice noodle packets, however many I plan to use. Boil for 3 minutes after they come back to a boil. Pour into a strainer and set aside while warming up your chicken soup.
If you plan to turn your soup into a pho chicken noodle soup, have some cooked bok choy, some spinach, and chopped cilantro ready to add to the noodles and soup. Voila you have your own Vietnamese Pho soup.
If planning to make matzo ball soup, I reserve 4 tbsp. of the chicken fat to use in the matzo ball recipe.
Making Matzo Ball Soup – GF or Regular
Matzo Balls: (These are not GF. For a GF matzo ball recipe: https://www.thespruceeats.com/gluten-free-matzo-ball-soup-1451479
Ingredients:
3 large organic eggs, blended with a fork
3/4 cup of matzo meal (found in the Jewish foods aisle of the supermarket)
1/4 cup chicken fat, melted (the same fat you removed from the chilled soup)
3 tbsp. club soda
1 and 1/4 tsps. Kosher salt or sea salt
**** Since writing this post I found GF Matzo crackers in the Jewish section of my grocery store, so I can now make GF matzo balls. Yay!
Directions:
Mix blended egg mixture, matzo meal, melted chicken fat, club soda and salt in a medium bowl. Mixture resembles wet sand, but firms up as it chills. Cover the bowl and chill in fridge for at least two hours. Mixture can be made one day ahead.
On the day of serving matzo ball soup:
Heat up one to two quarts of the chicken soup. I usually add in some of the chicken breast meat and sliced up cooked carrots I saved from making the soup. I turn off the heat and set the soup aside for later, after the matzo balls are done
Bring 4 quarts of salted water to a boil. While waiting for the water to boil, take the matzo mixture out of the fridge. Scoop out 2 tbsps of matzoh meal mixture at a time and form into nice round balls using wet hands to keep the mixture from sticking to your hands. I use a small cookie scoop.
When all the balls are rolled, add the matzo balls to the boiling water and reduce the heat to a gentle simmer. (Don’t let them boil or they will break apart.) Cover the pot and simmer the matzo balls until cooked through and starting to sink, 20 – 25 minutes.
Gently remove the matzo balls from the water and place in soup bowls or in your gently simmering chicken soup. Heat gently until all is hot.
Turn off the heat and ladle both soup and matzo balls into a large individual soup bowls. I sprinkle the soup with parmesan cheese. I hope this is not deemed incorrect by Jewish moms everywhere, but I am, of course, an Italian woman, so I sprinkle parmesan cheese on everything.
Low Fodmap Chicken Noodle Soup
Ingredients
- Ingredients:
- 1 four to five lb organic chicken
- 1 lb chicken parts (optional) wings, necks or backs optional
- 3-4 spring onions, sliced light green stems Don't use the white bulb part
- 1 bunch of celery including the hearts and leaves cut into large chunks
- 3 to 4 large carrots peeled and cut into large chunks
- 1 bunch chives diced up or sliced up
- 6 sprigs of Italian parsley
- Salt pepper and seasoned salt to sprinkle on the raw chicken
- 1 tbsp black peppercorns
- 1 tbsp sea salt
- 8 cups of cold water plus 1 cup
- Matzo Balls
- Ingredients:
- 3 large eggs blended well with a fork
- 1 pkg. fine egg noodles (GF or Regular)
- 1 Pkg. rice vermicelli noodles (if you want to make Pho)
- 3/4 cup of matzo meal (use GF matzo if you need to) found in the Jewish foods aisle of the supermarket
- 1/4 cup chicken fat melted (the same fat you removed from the chilled soup)
- 3 tbsp club soda
- 1 and 1/4 tsps Kosher salt or sea salt
Instructions
- Soup:
- Directions:
- Take out the bag of parts left in the chicken. Rinse the neck and keep for soup. Save other parts for another dish. Rinse the chicken under cold water. Pat dry. Sprinkle some sea salt inside the large cavity of the chicken.
- Sprinkle the top of the chicken with salt and black pepper. (Sometimes I use a sprinkle of Fody Food's seasoned salt on the breast part.) Place the chicken in a large soup pot. Add the optional other chicken parts, also rinsed under cold water, patted dry and sprinkled with salt and pepper, if using.
- Cut up the celery, including the hearts and leaves. Peel and cut up the carrots and light green stems of the spring onions, chop the parsley roughly, dice up the chives.
- Add all the vegetables on top of the chicken in the soup pot.
- Add 8 cups of cold water to the chicken and vegetables in the soup pot. Add 1 tbsp sea salt to the water.Turn the heat to high, cover the pot, and bring the liquid to a boil. At this point, some people like to remove the scum because it looks scary. I myself am not scared of scum and I dare to leave it in. Do not tell my mother this.
- After the soup comes to a boil, turn it down to a simmer, keep it covered and simmer for 1 hour. Check to see if the liquid went down too much. You can then add another 1/2 to 1 cup of water. Keep simmering the soup for another 1/2 hour to 1 hour until the chicken meat is very tender and juicy.
- Turn off the heat when the chicken is tender. Remove the chicken from the pot and place on a plate to cool a bit. When the chicken meat is cool enough for you to remove it from the bones, remove all the meat and place in a bowl. Place covered bowl in the fridge if using that day or the next day. Freeze for future use.
- Pour the soup into a fine strainer that has been placed over a bowl so that the vegetables go into the strainer and the soup goes into the bowl. I fish out the cooked carrots and place them in the strained soup. Refrigerate the soup covered for several hours or until the fat rises to the top and can be removed. I usually let the soup stay in the fridge all day and I use it that night or the next day. If you don't plan to use the soup right away or the chicken meat , place both soup and chicken meat in plastic containers and freeze until planning to use them.
- After the fat has risen to the top of my chicken soup and solidified enough to remove it with a spoon, I remove it. If planning to make matzoh ball soup, I reserve 4 tbsp of the chicken fat to use in the matzoh ball recipe.
- Noodle soup directions: Cook noodles according to package directions and add to warmed soup.
- Matzoh Ball Directions:
- Directions:
- Mix blended egg mixture, matzoh meal, melted chicken fat, club soda and salt in a medium bowl. Mixture resembles wet sand, but firms up as it chills. Cover the bowl and chill in fridge for at least two hours. Mixture can be made one day ahead.
- On the day of serving matzo ball soup:
- Heat up one to two quarts of the chicken soup. I usually add in some of the chicken breast meat and sliced up cooked carrots I saved from making the soup. I turn off the heat and set the soup aside for later, after the matzo balls are done.
- Bring 4 quarts of salted water to a boil. While waiting for the water to boil, take the matzo mixture out of the fridge. Scoop out 2 tbsps of matzoh meal mixture at a time and form into nice round balls using wet hands to keep the mixture from sticking to your hands.
- When all the balls are rolled, add the matzoh balls to the boiling water and reduce the heat to a gentle simmer. (Don't let them boil or they will break apart.) Cover the pot and simmer the matzo balls until cooked through and starting to sink, 20 - 25 minutes.
- Gently remove the matzoh balls from the water and place in soup bowls or in your gently simmering chicken soup. Heat gently until all is hot.
- Turn off the heat and ladle both soup and matzo balls into a large individual soup bowls. I sprinkle the soup with parmesan cheese. I hope this is not deemed incorrect by Jewish moms everywhere, but I am, of course, an Italian woman, so I sprinkle parmesan cheese on everything.
