Cooking corner: chicken noodle soup

By RACHEL OWEN

Like most people, I find the concept of change is terrifying. And so, while making dinner recently, I went for what might be the most comforting meal imaginable.

It’s got everything: it’s easy to make, delicious, familiar and, most importantly, it’s really satisfying to carve up a whole chicken with a huge knife after a week of studying for midterms (oh, hello CAPS, nothing to see here).

I’ve paired this recipe with dough dodgers, which are essentially just fried dough. They are delicious and absolutely necessary for your mental and physical health, trust me.

I know the idea of cooking with a whole chicken is intimidating, but it’s really not as hard as you think. I purchased one that was already cut into pieces, but still had the skin and bones intact. This is important for the final taste of your broth.

If you absolutely cannot handle the idea of de-boning your chicken once it is done cooking, you can use store-bought broth instead of the water and both dark and light meat in the soup, but I’m not taking any responsibility for the results.

One final tip: you might think the chicken has cooled enough to be de-boned after ten minutes. You are wrong. Much like a hot pocket, its thermodynamic properties cannot be explained and you will burn your hands.

Ingredients:
olive oil
1/2 bunch of celery
1 onion, chopped
5-6 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 whole chicken, giblets removed
2 tbsp parsley
1 tbsp rosemary
a few sprigs of saffron
1 tbsp thyme
salt and pepper to taste (you will need more salt than you think)
water
egg noodles
frying oil
frozen roll dough (I’ve had the best luck finding this at WalMart)

Directions:

First, saute the celery and onion in olive oil until soft. Add the carrots, chicken, spices and enough water to cover it all.

Boil for an hour and a half, or until the chicken is cooked through and falling off the bone. Remove chicken from the pot and allow to cool.

When cool, remove skin and discard. Remove meat from bones and put back into pot. Serve soup with cooked egg noodles.

For the dough dodgers, allow dough to defrost and rise ahead of time. It is a good idea to start this process before beginning the soup, because it is fairly time-consuming.

When it is fully defrosted and risen, take each individual roll and stretch it out with your fingers until it resembles a pancake.

These should be fairly thin because they puff up a little during the frying process. Put 1/4 inch of oil in your pan and heat it to medium, and then fry each dough dodger until golden brown on each side.

These cook (and burn) quickly so you will need to keep an eye on them. Serve alongside soup.