[English]
Congratulations. You've officially made
it to soup season. And as a certified
soup lover, I feel that it is my duty to
pass down one of the greatests of all
time.
Don't look at me when I do this. Now,
creamy chicken soup is not only one of
my most popular recipes, it also happens
to be my wife's favorite, which means I
make it a lot. But that also means that
over time, I found ways to make it even
better. So, stick around if you like
soup. To start, we're going to be making
our from scratch, which you don't
technically have to do. There is nothing
wrong with using a pre-made packaged.
They're great. They work well. But for
something like this where it already
doesn't take a ton of time to make the
soup, why not put a little bit more
effort in and make your noki from
scratch? So, if you're going to join me
and make youroki from scratch, the first
thing you're going to need is about a
pound of potatoes. Specifically, Yukon
Gold potatoes. And you really have two
ways to cook them. Technically, there's
a third way, but that third way is
boiling them. And if you boil them,
you're adding extra moisture into your
potatoes and then sometimes it can mess
with the texture of your which I'm
assuming you also don't want. So for the
two methods, you have the first, which
is baking. Throw them in the oven 375
for about 45 to 60 minutes, depending on
how big your potatoes are, and they're
cooked. But the second option that you
have is to just take your potatoes,
place them on a microwave safe plate,
cover them with a nice damp towel, and
throw them in your microwave for 5
minutes at a time, rotating them around
until they're cooked all the way
through. usually like 10 to 15 minutes
depending on how big your potatoes are.
I don't see anything wrong with either
method. The only difference is if you're
going to do it in the oven, it's going
to take you longer. But if you do it in
the microwave, you have to be a little
more hands-on. So, up to you. Now, once
your potatoes are cooked, you're taking
the same steps. Your cooked potato
inside a ricer or you can peel it and
throw it onto a fine me strainer or a
sie and then just scrape it through. But
you're just going to want to push it
through your ricer and get it all nice
and mashed. This is one of the reasons I
really like using a ricer because you
don't have to peel your potato before
you throw it into it. It just like
squeezes around it. And then you can
just take your peel out afterwards.
And I like to also make sure that I'm
grabbing any of the potato that's
squeezed out the sides and made its way
to the top because that's still good
potato that we want to make sure we rice
out. Then we're just going to scrape off
the bottom. Make sure we get all of our
potato. And then we'll just kind of fold
it all together into a nice little mash.
Make sure I didn't miss any clumps and
it's all fully cooked and nice and soft.
And now into this we're going to add two
egg yolks. Just the yolks, not the
whites. You could alternatively just use
one full egg with the white instead of
just using two egg yolks. Again, words
are hard, but it's not going to be as
creamy and it's not going to be as rich.
And so, it's trade-off. But it is a
little bit easier to work with if you're
just using one full egg. We're just
going to mash that in a bit just to kind
of get it spread out.
And now I've got about a cup of flour
that I'm going to run through this sieve
because I want to make sure I get out
any clumps so it's nice and smooth and
buttery. And once it starts to form into
a nice shaggy dough, it's probably best
to just move on to using your hands
because it's going to be a lot easier.
And then just continue to press and fold
it together until it's nice and smooth.
This will definitely take a little bit
of time. And if your dough is not coming
together and you feel like it's too dry,
just keep working it a little bit
because the worst thing you can do is
add more liquid to this. but when you
don't need it. As you can tell, mine was
looking pretty dry, but now it's
actually a little bit on the wet side.
And I'm just going to add in a little
bit more of my flour. This is 100% a
game of patience and trusting yourself.
It's going to come together. And
eventually, after you've worked in all
of your flour, you're going to end up
with a nice smooth ball like this. And
you'll know it's good when you press on
it and it bounces back. Now, you're just
going to go ahead and split that in half
and sprinkle down a little bit of flour.
Then, we're just going to roll each
piece of dough into about a/2 in thick
log. And it helps if you start your roll
in the center. and then push that dough
out to help spread it out. And even more
so, if your dough is getting too long,
just split it in half. And then once we
have a thickness that we like all the
way across, we're just going to chop our
pieces
relatively evenly. Now, once you have
all these nice little pillows, you're
just going to dust it with a little bit
of flour just to make sure that they
don't stick to each other like this.
This is why you should have dusted it a
little bit earlier, but I was just
trying to get through all of it, trying
to rush through. And now look, I made
more work for myself. Shame on me. And
now once you have all these beautiful
littleki pillows, you have two you have
two options. You can just leave them
like this, which is totally fine.
They're beautiful and everybody loves
them. Or if you don't have one of those
boards, you can take a fork, place down
your give it a little thumb pressure,
and just roll it. That'll give you a
relatively similar result without having
to buy the thing. But I'm going to be
honest, for something like this, going
through and and trying to roll all of
these singular pieces of, it's not worth
it. So, I'm just going to do those
three, and they're going to be my
special three that when I find later in
my soup, I'm going to be stoked about.
And in the meantime, I'm just going to
move all of these over to a sheet tray
until we're ready to cook. And leaving
these on the counter top is okay. You
just want to make sure you cover it with
a damp towel so that way it doesn't get
all dried out. And now for the chicken
part of our creamy chicken soup, chicken
thighs. Now, in the past, I used chicken
breast because it's sitting in a soup,
so it's not exactly going to dry out.
But even though it technically speaking,
it's not going to dry out the same way,
it's still not going to have the best
mouth feel. So that's why I started
using chicken thighs. Now, these are
boneless and skinless, but of course,
there is still a little bit of fat on
these that I just want to trim off
because again, it doesn't contribute to
the mouth feel when you're chewing on a
piece of chicken fat. It is also a
really good time to inspect the
underside for any bone fragments that
may have been left behind because, well,
yes, these are boneless, skinless,
things happen, and the last thing you
want to do is chip a tooth on a piece of
chicken bone. Now, once you have these
all nicely trimmed and laid out, you
just want to hit them with a little
drizzle of olive oil. This is just going
to help our seasoning bind to our
chicken. Make sure we get every nook and
cranny because we don't want there to be
any bare spots. And now to season our
chicken. I'm going to be honest with
you, it's up to you. It really is like
this is a perfect time for you to be
like, "Hey, let me try something
different. Let me try something new." As
long as the flavors of your chicken go
along with the flavors of the soup,
which is pretty broad really, you're
going to be okay. But if you really do
want measurements, then here we go.
Roughly 3 tablespoons of garlic powder,
2 tbsp of onion powder. I don't know why
I haven't punched the holes in this
thing any bigger because every time I do
this, it just makes a cloud of onion
powder smoke and I breathe it in and it
hurts. About a tablespoon of paprika.
That's a little bit more, but again,
that's okay. And about a tablespoon of
dried oregano. And of course, salt and
pepper. I refuse to take this glove off
because I'm going to have to rub this
into the chicken as in a second.
Cool. That's a lot more pepper than I
thought it was. It's okay. It's going to
work. Now, you could also just use a
spice rub that you like. This is a great
time to use one of those. save you some
time, save you some energy, but again,
it's really all just personal
preference. Just as long as your chicken
is completely covered in seasoning,
you're good. And now for the last little
bit of prep before we actually cook
everything. We're going to start off by
finally dicing one shallot. Uh in my
case, I have this extremely large uh
double shallot. You don't need that,
just the one. And now, I just want this
to be a nice fine dice. So, I'm just
going to slide my knife through the
sides. And then, I'm going to go
straight down, holding it together as
best I can, and then rotate. And then
dice accordingly.
I know there's a better way to chop
shallots. Uh I just refuse to do it. But
anyways, you just move that to the side.
And we are going to crush and roughly
chop some garlic. Six pieces to be
exact. Don't forget to strip these bad
boys down because you don't want to be
munching on garlic skin.
And you don't want to cut this down into
a paste, but you do want it to be fairly
small because you want it to blend into
the soup. Something like this is
perfect. And now for the last bit of
prep, we have sundried tomatoes. My
finger strength took off a little bit of
the label and I I thought it was mold.
It's not mold. It's it's just the label.
Now, you want about a four cup of
sun-dried tomatoes, but honestly, like
it's personal preference. This is one of
those things where like my wife loves
sun-dried tomatoes, so I honestly
probably could get away with more
sun-dried tomatoes, but I think right
around a four cup is a nice balance for
this. But I'm also not going to judge
you if you use more. I'm not that kind
of guy. And for this, we just want to
cut it into nice short small pieces. You
don't want it minced, but you also don't
want long stringy pieces of sundried
tomato. So, if you get the ones that are
in the jar that are already juliened,
great. But you're still probably going
to want to cut those up at least a
little bit. And that is all of it. And
now to cook all of this, I'm going to be
using a very large Dutch oven. How
large, you might be wondering. Well, I'm
not sure right now, but hey, thank you,
future me. Now, the first thing we're
going to be cooking is our chicken. So,
we're going to want to bring this up to
a medium high heat so we can saute it.
And now that our pot has sat for about
10 minutes and is adequately preheated,
Italian food loop or olive oil. Then,
we're just going to carefully lay down
our chicken thighs, making sure that
they don't overlap. And if your pot is
not wide enough to do all of your
chicken thighs at one point, that's
totally okay. Just go ahead and do it in
batches. Better for it to take a little
bit longer than for you to overcrowd
your pot. The important thing here is
that you're using the same pot you're
going to cook your soup in, cuz that way
all the flavor cooks together. And then
after about 2 minutes on that first
side, you're going to go ahead and flip
each piece over and then let it sear
again on the other side.
[Music]
And then after another 2 minutes, you're
going to go ahead and flip again. And
you're just going to do this two to
three times until your chicken is fully
cooked. And now that our chicken is
cooked right about 155, I'm just going
to go ahead and remove it. Let this all
rest. Now, technically speaking, chicken
is supposed to be cooked to 165, but at
155, it's still hot. It's still cooking
right now. So, it's going to get up to
165, but do what you're comfortable
with. Now, in this same pot, we're going
to turn our heat down to medium low. And
as long as you still have a solid amount
of oil left in your pot, you don't have
to add anymore. But what you do want to
add is your shallots, garlic, and
sun-dried tomatoes. And you're just
going to want to keep this moving all
around your pot. That way nothing burns
and it just becomes nice and fragrant.
And after about 3 minutes or once it all
starts to cook down and those shallots
become translucent, you're going to want
to add your tomato paste. Right about a
tablespoon and a half of tomato paste,
followed by 2 tbsps of garlic powder, a
tablespoon of paprika, a tablespoon of
dried oregano, and a tablespoon of red
chili flakes or again your preferred
spice blend. Then we're just going to
mix all that together so that way our
tomato paste is nice and toasted as well
as all of our spices. And once that raw
tomato paste smell is cooked all the way
down, we're going to add in six cups of
highquality chicken broth. Now, you want
to use something that's high quality
because in something like this or the
chicken broth really is a big component,
right? So, if you cheap out on your
chicken broth and you get something that
isn't super flavorful or is kind of just
weak all around, then you're going to
end up tasting it in the end or not
tasting it. So, this is definitely one
of those times where I would recommend
you either make your chicken stock from
scratch or you spend a little bit more
and get something that's a little bit
nicer. But, I totally get this stuff is
not necessarily super affordable. So, if
you want to, you can always use a
cheaper stock and try to fortify it
yourself. It's just a little bit more
work. Now, from here, we're going to
want to go ahead and bring this up to a
nice simmer while we stir and
incorporate everything together. It's
also an important time to scrape the
bottom of your pan because all that
flavor from when we cooked our chicken
is cooked onto the bottom in that
beautiful fawn that you don't want to
miss out on. And now that we have this
going at a nice simmer, we're going to
let this ride for about 15 minutes
without a lid on because if we put a lid
on it, it's going to trap all the
moisture in there. What we want is for
some of that water to evaporate so that
way our soup gets nice and condensed
with all that flavor. Now, after that 15
minutes, you're going to want to go
ahead and add in your heavy cream. We're
going to carefully pour in about 4 cups
of heavy cream and stir that in nice and
slow. You're also going to want to grate
in about 2 cups or about 175 g of fresh
pano reano. Please do not use that
pre-grated crumbly stuff in a can. It's
not what you want for this. It's not
going to be good. Save that for your
pizza or even like just don't use that
at all. And then just make sure you've
stirred in all that cheese until it's
nice and melted. Now, we're just going
to want to bring this back up to a light
simmer. Again, we want to leave this
uncovered because we want it to thicken
up. This time we're going to want to
make sure we're stirring at least every
minute to two minutes so that way
nothing burns to the bottom.
And you know at this point you're
probably wondering why I use such a
large pot even though my soup barely
gets up to halfway. Well, let me tell
you why. Because I make this soup enough
to know if you don't have enough space
between the top of your soup and the top
of your pot, you're going to end up with
most of your soup all over your
countertop every time you stir it. It's
just the way it is. So, to me, it only
makes sense to use a larger pot, so that
way you have a higher sidewall here to
protect from spillage. And now that this
has been simmering for about 30 minutes,
you can see our soup is really starting
to thicken up. It's not too thick like
it would be in a sauce, but it has
thickened up enough to give us that nice
creamy texture in our soup. At this
point, we can go ahead and turn our heat
down to medium low because we just want
to basically keep it warm at this point.
And we're going to taste and adjust for
our salt. Because while we did add all
those flavorings and seasoning from
before, we didn't add any salt because
at that point, we still wanted to cook
down our soup. So, if we would have
salted it then, it would have been
great. But then as it cooked down and
some of that water evaporated, we would
have ended up with something that was a
little too salty.
Obviously needs salt.
Better, but still more salt. And this
might be more or less for you. It really
depends on your personal preference on
how much salt you want in your soup. Not
necessarily how much salt you want in
your soup from a sodium intake
standpoint, but what tastes good. So,
you'll just have to taste it and adjust
to your liking, which is great because
then you're going to learn that taste.
You're going to learn that adjustment,
that specificity, and you're going to
apply that to everything you cook. And
now, this is a great point to cut up our
chicken and add it back into our soup.
Now, this chicken has just been sitting
here waiting and resting while we cook
everything else. So, it's retained as
much of the juice as possible, and it's
cooked itself all the way through. And
then once that's all nice and cubed up,
we can go ahead and just carefully add
that into our soup. Remember, the soup
is hot and will splash and hurt, so
please be careful. And now for the last
thing that we need to cook ankoki. But
remember, if you're using the pre-made,
you can just add this straight in and
let it sit until it's cooked through.
But because we're using freshoki, it's
got a little extra flour on it. We want
to make sure we cook that off
separately. The reason we want to boil
it separately for the freshoki is
because there's a lot more flour on it,
and we don't want that to thicken up our
soup and get all gunky in there. So,
we're going to set this pot to boil.
Obviously, a very heavy pinch of salt
and some boiling water, followed by our
pillowy goodness.
And one of the nice things of making
freshoki is that it really doesn't take
very long to cook. 2 to 3 minutes tops.
And once it's floating to the top, you
know it's done. And then we'll just fold
all this in together. And to finish it
all off, we have a nice handful of some
ready to party washed spinach. Remember,
spinach cooks down really easily and
it's going to shrink. So even though
this looks like a lot, it's not going to
be a lot in a few minutes. We're also
going to tear in a little bit of fresh
Italian parsley. Roughly four to five
stems worth. And if you have it, fresh
basil is really nice as well. You don't
need to cut it up. You just pluck it off
of your plant. Hopefully, you have a
plant. And then you can just layer it
all up and give it a few nice tears. And
all you need to do from here is just
stir it all together.
[Music]
Thank you so much for watching. I really
hope that you enjoyed it. I really hope
that you learned something. Here's a
photo of me at the park. And I'll see
you next