quick and easy chicken soup

While many of you are resolving to have more salads, more vegetables, less fat, less sugar, less caffeine, more water, more exercise, more sleep, less fried stuff, more of the raw and the crunchy, and so on, here in the Sassy Radish household, we’re resolving to beat the flu—Andrew’s flu to be exact. And aside from the usual suspects of the famed BRAT diet (bananas-rice-applesauce-toast), we’re elbow deep in good chicken stock. Which we use for our fifteen minute version of the best chicken soup to eat when you’re sick. Which, for all of you, I hope is never. Still, having this on hand, should you ever need it, will make your life better, I think. Plus, I hear the flu is brutal this year, and if Andrew is any indication—it is, so here goes.

The problem with having homemade chicken soup when you get sick, in my opinion, is that by the time you actually do get sick and actually need said chicken soup, you might be out of luck. Who is to make it for you if you’re the one convalescing in bed? Who has the strength to spend hours and hours simmering stock? You might be in luck; someone in your household: a roommate, a significant other, a spouse— might be a cook. But what if you live by yourself? What if your cohabitants, like my husband, are of the non-cooking proclivity? What then?

True, that in New York, decent chicken soup is but a phone call away. If you’re lucky, it’ll come with a matzo ball or two, resplendent with freshly added noodles and coins of bright orange carrots. But outside of the city, or any metropolis with decent delivery options, chicken soup, for when you’re sick, becomes not much more but a pipedream. I’m not knocking down canned chicken soup—in a pinch it’ll do, but it doesn’t seem to have the same healing properties of the homemade kind. How ironic that something you might need the most, is least attainable when you need it the most?

I am nothing if not prepared: For such calamities, I have an emergency chicken stock stash. I replace it every few months (health codes dictate stock can be frozen for only three months, but I’ve kept mine a wee longer and so far, I can happily report that no one has died or had food poisoning) to keep the stash new, but there is always two quarts of stock in my freezer labeled “Emergency Chicken Stock” with the date it was made, meaning, I am not to use it for anything but if anyone gets sick. That way, if that sick person is me, I can easily pull together a ready-made soup in about fifteen minutes.

What I do with the stock is the following: I take out my container (usually a quart) from the freezer and run it under hot water for a few minutes. It then becomes unglued from the walls of its home and easily slides out of the container into a pot. I place the pot on my stovetop over medium heat and cover the ice block while it melts. Meanwhile, I measure out two to three tablespoons of white rice and set it aside. I peel and chop two medium carrots. I squeeze out one lemon and I measure out one to two teaspoons of grated fresh ginger (I tend to grate a large hunk of it every few days and use it for hot water with lemon and ginger, cooking, and so on, so it’s easily within my reach – I hate peeling and chopping a tiny piece of ginger!). I break an egg into a small bowl and lightly beat it with a fork.

As soon as my mise-en-place is done (it takes about five minutes to put together), I add my rice, carrots, lemon juice, and ginger to the soup. When the broth comes to a boil, I reduce the heat to a calm simmer and let the rice cook in the broth for about ten minutes. I taste a few grains of rice and a carrot  slice to make sure both are tender—usually they are.  With the heat on the lowest setting possible, whisk in hand, I slowly add the beaten egg, while whisking the soup, and then immediately remove it from heat and ladle it into bowls.
And that’s it. In fifteen minutes, you have a comforting bowl of soup in your hands. You’re on your way to “better” – how fantastic is that? Best part, even if you’re too sick to make this for yourself, if you have all the building blocks, stock being the most important, you can ask your roommate/significant-other/spouse to whip it up for you in no time.

There—I might have not offered you any New Year’s resolutions, but at least I might have solved a bit of a conundrum for you at least when it comes to chicken soup. I hope that I, at least, made 2013 a little bit better. That’s enough for me.

P.S. I’m sorry for less than stellar pictures. Getting the pictures right wasn’t really on my mind this week while I was playing nurse. Still, this soup is really a great asset to have in your recipe pile – forgive me for the visual blunder.