Chicken, Mushroom and Noodle Broth - A Random Recipe

A new year means a new month and with a new month comes many blogger challenges. I have my eye on two this month, Tea Time Treats and of course the usual Random Recipe Challenge from Belleau Kitchen.

The Random Recipe challenge this month is Christmas cookbooks. I got one book for Christmas which was a book about cake decorating, not really appropriate for this month with the cake I currently have to make and decorate taking up a lot of time. So I decided to go for the book I treated myself to over the Christmas period which was Nigel Slater's Eat.

Nigel Slater is not everyone's cup of tea but I like him. His recipes are usually spot on and work every time and they are focused on flavour and not complicated techniques. Eat is no exception, it's a hefty book, with a lovely cloth binding, filled with quick recipes and also suggestions around those recipes all written in an easy going style with no random hard-to-get ingredients. I highly recommend it.

As usual, I consulted the wise sage that is the random number generator to select my recipe which lead me to page 59, the home of a chicken, asparagus and noodle broth.

I am not going to post the recipe as it is in the book, I'm just going to tell you how I did it and what I changed.

Chicken, Courgette and Noodle Broth
Firstly, I seasoned 4 chicken legs with salt and pepper before browning them in oil a deep pan  until golden on all sides. I then sliced up some Chestnut mushrooms (about 4 large) and added them to the pan alongside a clove of thinly sliced garlic. I then added a chicken stock pot and 750ml water and left to simmer for 30 minutes. The recipe then states to add asparagus shavings but having checked out the dire specimens in the supermarket I decided to opt for a courgette which I peeled into thin strips using a vegetable peeler. I added these plus 200g of noodles to the pot. I then removed the chicken, shredded it, discarded the bone and stirred it back into the pan and then served.

The resulting broth was superb. it was akin to having a great big hug in a bowl, defending you from the winter chill. A deep chicken flavour with a undercurrent of garlic, bulked up with meaty chestnut mushrooms and soft noodles, I did feel it lacked just a slight kick of heat and next time I might slice up a mild chilli and add it with the garlic.  It was very simple to make and will easily serve 3 people. Another corker from the Random Recipe challenge.