- Hi, guys.
Welcome to my home kitchen
in Queens.
Today we are cooking from home
and we're gonna be making
Everything Is Optional Chicken Noodle Soup.
I'm going to be using my favorite ingredients today,
but you basically have a formula to work off of.
Anything three vegetables that you like.
Any of your three favorite aromatics.
You can use any cut of chicken that you want.
I'm gonna be using some drumsticks today
with the bone-in, skin-on so that it's extra, extra flavor.
You can use whatever noodles you have on hand.
Anything goes.
It's all gonna be delicious.
If you have chicken broth, go ahead and use that
and if you don't, use water.
Gonna flavor it with some dried shiitake mushrooms
and then I'm gonna add in three of my favorite veggies,
broccoli, carrots, corn.
We're gonna count corn as a vegetable today
'cause why not?
I'm gonna go with three aromatics,
garlic, green onions, ginger.
Some instant ramen for those of us
who never really left college in our minds.
And then you can go ahead and choose your favorite toppings
to put on this soup for when we're done.
(snaps) And it'll be delicious!
Literally whatever you have in your house right now.
We're gonna make this and it's gonna be good.
This is a very forgiving recipe for very unforgiving times.
So let's do this, let's make this,
and let's treat ourselves today.
(quiet hiphop music)
All of our mushrooms are in.
So we're just gonna turn on the heat
to a nice solid medium
and we're just gonna let it chill and come up to a simmer.
So it's come up to a boil.
You can see the mushrooms are pretty, pretty plump right now
and I think we're good to take it off the stove.
We're just gonna set it aside and let it chill and hang
until it's a little bit cooler
and the mushrooms are fully, fully rehydrated.
And then we're going to move onto our chicken.
So chicken's very basic.
We're gonna be using a deep skillet if you have one,
but no worries if you don't, use whatever you've got,
but should be big enough to hold
all of the veggies at least.
And then we're just gonna wait
until the pan is nice and hot
before we go in with anything.
I'm gonna use some olive oil today.
You can use whatever neutral oil you want.
Just don't use toasted sesame oil.
It might burn on you.
We're gonna go in with about a tablespoon,
however if you're using chicken breasts
or skinless, boneless cuts of meat,
I would recommend that you plop in two pats of butter
alongside two tablespoons of oil
to make up for that missing fat component.
Pop it in skin-side down.
(chicken sizzles) (funky jazz music)
We have the chicken perfectly, perfectly golden seared now.
Can you see this, can you see this?
So the chicken is done.
We're gonna move onto our veggies.
There's enough schmaltzy substance in here
to really get our veggies nice and golden brown
but I will just add a touch bit more olive oil inside here
to ensure that they get extra flavorful
and golden and seared
and that they don't stick to anything and nothing burns.
Always more fat.
Always a good idea.
(lively jazz music)
(vegetables lightly sizzle)
Okay, what we're looking for here
is nice some nice, little tiny bits of charring
on the vegetables.
And also when you hear the corn kernels start to pop off,
that's when you know that you're really, really close.
I'm going to lift the mushrooms out of the broth.
Next steps, we're going to pour the broth into the veggies.
We're going to be scrapping the pot
so that the fond gets lifted from underneath
and incoporated into the flavor of the broth.
(lively jazz music)
(whispers) Wash your hands!
We're going to have clean hands
and shred the chicken into bite-sized pieces.
If you like your skin, put the skin in.
If you don't like your skin, feed it to me, I like the skin.
I don't know, teleport it to me.
Then we're gonna put the chicken back in the pot
with the veggies and the delicious broth
and then we're gonna plop our little piece
of ramen brick in.
You can use whatever noodles you've got.
We'll let it cook until it's al dente.
Ramen noodle doesn't take that long at all.
It takes maybe two minutes.
So we'll let that cook.
(sensual jazz music)
And then we top it with whatever we want
and eat it and the day is complete.
Hallelujah.
(smooth jazz music)
Come get it, guys.
We made some Everything Is Optional Chicken Noodle Soup.
The ramen, the broccoli, the carrots,
the chicken, the mushrooms, (whispers) and the chili oil.
The chili oil is really what does it for me.
Mm!
The veggies are soft and tender.
The broccoli has absorbed all the flavors
of the mushroom and the chicken stock.
And that chili oil is just floating on by
through each bite.
I also put some fresh basil leaves from my windowsill.
If you've got 'em, use 'em.
Fresh herbs always take it up a notch.
I just eat 'em raw.
I'm starving.
I hope you guys enjoyed this, I hope you make it,
I hope you tell me all the different combinations
of vegetables and herbs that you used,
and I hope you tell me
what your favorite toppings are down below.
And let me know what else you want me to make
with all the stuff that's in your pantry
and fridge and freezer right now
because let's make stuff together and let's eat together.
Hope to see you soon.
Take care of yourselves in the meantime.
(lively jazz music)