January can be a bit of a slog, so we want to cheer things up with this incredibly delicious and nourishing bowl of joy. It’s a great way to use up a roast chicken carcass, and really is very simple to bring together. We are using some king oyster and shimeji mushrooms here, but any cultivated mushroom will work well.
Preparation time 30 minutes | Cook time 2-3 hours | Serves 4
1 left over whole roast chicken (with a little meat on it)
1 leek trimmed, rinsed, and cut into thin rounds
2 carrots, scrubbed and sliced
1 garlic bulb, cut in half
1 large thumb sized piece of ginger, thinly sliced
1 red chilli, split
To finish the broth
200g mushrooms, sliced
6-8 spring onions trimmed and thinly sliced
2 tablespoons of sesame seeds toasted
3-4 tablespoons of tamari
2 tablespoons of toasted sesame oil
1 lime
1 fresh red chilli
1 small bunch of coriander roughly chopped
4 Stonegate Estate Organic eggs
2 nests of medium noodles
Pick any tasty looking shards of meat from the roast chicken carcass and set them to one side. Tear the carcass up into bits (if you can manage it) and place in a pan with the leek, carrots, garlic, ginger, and chilli. Pour over 1.5 litres of water, or enough to cover all the ingredients, and bring the pan up to a simmer. Turn the heat down, cover with a lid, and let the stock cook very gently for about 2 hours.
After the stock has had its cooking time, take it off the heat and carefully pour the contents of the pan into a colander set over a nice big bowl.
Cook the noodles in a large pan of boiling water according to the instructions on the packet, plunge them into some cold water and set to one side. Add the eggs to the boiling water and cook for roughly 6-7 minutes. Once the eggs are cool enough to handle peel them.
Pour the strained chicken broth back into a clean pan. Set the pan back over the heat and bring it up to a simmer. When the soup’s simmering, add the sliced mushrooms and simmer for 3-4 minutes. Now add the spring onions, sesame oil, tamari and sesame seeds and bring back to a simmer.
Add the cooked noodles to the pan along with the chicken meat you’ve set aside. Cook for a minute or two more, then switch off the heat and squeeze in the lime juice. Check the seasoning. You can adjust the balance with a splash more tamari sauce or lime.
Ladle the broth into warm bowls. Halve the eggs and nestle these down into the broth. Finish with a shake of extra sesame seeds, some thinly sliced chilli and a scattering of chopped fresh coriander.
