Taking Stock...

My life and meals go much better if I just take a few (actually, about 4) hours on a day when I know I'm going to be home to make a great big pot of homemade chicken stock. There are a thousand recipes for the "best chicken stock" on the internet and it really couldn't be easier. I have a great recipe and some helpful pictures that I'm going to post for you very soon.

Anyway, tonight's dinner (which the dogs loooooved, btw) was so good and so easy. It took roughly half an hour to make but I was doing eight other things at the same time. I freeze my chicken stock in quart containers, I've found that size works best. Lately I've been reusing these great containers my favorite ramen soup comes in from a big deli in Times Square. They literally pour boiling hot ramen soup into these containers so they're very thick and very sturdy. I couldn't live with myself if I sent one of these things to a landfill. Here's a couple filled with frozen stock in my freezer:

Back to tonight's dinner. We threw 3 chicken breasts in the oven (coated with kosher salt, fresh cracked pepper and olive oil) to roast for about a half hour. I'd planned early and moved two containers of stock from the freezer to the fridge this morning to thaw. I cut up 4 big carrots, 4 stalks of celery and one medium onion. The stock and all vegetables went into a pot and were brought to a boil. I boiled everything for about 10 minutes so the carrots would be cooked. (You may need to add a couple of cups of water if you want your soup, you know, soupier. We like it full of noodles!) Add about half or 3/4 of a package of egg noodles to the boiling stock. By the time they cook, your chicken should be done in the oven. Pull that out, and cut into chunks using tongs and a knife since they'll be hot. Stir the chicken in. (Make sure to add the chicken juices left in the roasting pan to the soup! Deglaze that pan with a little of your broth if necessary... that's ALL FLAVOR!) Let simmer for a few minutes to meld all the ingredients. Do a final seasoning of salt or pepper if you like. Eat.

You now have a meal that tastes like it took most of the day... but it totally didn't.