No Salt Added Chicken Noodle Soup with Swiss Chard
Time for the Broth: 1h 25 minutes
Now wait for the chicken to cool
Time for the soup: 10 - 15 minutes
(depends on how long it takes to cook your noodles)
Make this soup when you are feeling under the weather or just need a break from the general sodium overload of life.
With the chicken, dried mushrooms, ginger, garlic and konbu you will still have a flavor packed, umami rich broth that you will want to drink by the mugful.
In fact, you should most definitely have a mugful while you wait for the chicken to cool. There are no bonus points for burning your fingers while removing the meat from the carcass.
Servings/Suggestions
The soup part of this recipe is for two. However, this recipe can easily be doubled to serve four. And tripled for six.
You could skip making the broth and buy no salt added chicken broth, but this broth is the best part!
If you prefer to use a different noodle, by all means, go ahead.
Make the broth early in the day or the day before.
Ingredients
For the broth
1 whole chicken
Mine was just over 4 pounds
4 chicken wings or 2 whole chicken wings
4 slices of ginger
approximately 2” long and 1/4” thick
1 piece of konbu
5 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed
1 bunch scallions, white & light green parts only
aka green onions
1 oz dried & sliced shiitake mushrooms
White or yellow onion (optional)
I just used it because I had half of an onion leftover from the day before
For the soup
4 cups broth
1 chicken breast (including the tenderloin), thinly sliced
2 Swiss chard leaves, rinsed, stemmed and sliced into strips
roughly 2” long and 1” wide
1.5 cups dry egg noodles
3 scallions, dark green part only
Mise en place
(Set yourself up for success before you start cooking)
For the broth
Cut the wings off of your chicken. Separate the tip, the flat and the drumette. Click here for some basic wing anatomy.
Rinse and slice the ginger
Wipe the konbu with a damp paper towel
Rinse the shiitake mushrooms
Start filtering water and pouring it into a pitcher or large bowl. If you don’t drink water straight from the tap at your house, why cook with it?
Slice the scallions
Remove the gizzards if they are in the cavity. Rinse the chicken.
For the soup
Rinse the Swiss Chard. Slice out the stem (we aren’t using it in this recipe). Slice the leaves into roughly 2” long and 1" wide slices.
Slice scallions into 1/2” pieces
Directions
Step 1
Heat up a large pot over medium high heat. Add a splash of grapeseed oil. Add the eight chicken wing pieces (the four you bought and the four from your chicken) to brown. After seven minutes, flip the wings and cook the other side for five minutes.
Step 2
Smash the garlic cloves with the flat side of your knife. Discard the garlic skins. Add the garlic and the sliced ginger to the pot and stir. Cook for two minutes.
Step 3
Add the mushrooms, konbu, scallions (white & light green parts only), chicken and water. Add enough water to cover the chicken.
Step 4
Increase heat to high and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer until the chicken is cooked through. This will take roughly an hour but will depend on the size of your chicken.
Step 5
Remove the chicken. Then increase heat to high and boil for five minutes covered. Then remove the lid and boil for 10 more minutes. Make sure it doesn’t boil over!
Step 6
Strain the stock into a large bowl. Wait at least an hour for the chicken to cool.
Step 7
Once the chicken has cooled, remove the skin. Then remove the meat from the carcass and bones. Pour any accumulated juices into the bowl with the broth.
Step 8
Soup time!
We need two pots, one for the broth and one for the noodles. Add water to your noodle pot and heat over high heat. Add your broth to another pot, cover, and heat over high heat. When broth boils, reduce heat to low.
Step 9
When the pasta water is boiling, cook noodles according to the directions on the package. Then strain the noodles and distribute them evenly among two bowls.
Step 10
Add Swiss chard to the broth. Stir, cover, and increase the heat to medium. After 1 minute, add the sliced chicken and stir. After another minute, add the sliced scallion and stir. Then ladle the soup over the noodles.
