Simple Comfort Food - Chicken Soup Noodles

Home sweet home!

After spending 3 nights on my cruise vacation to Ensenada, now I'm back to my tiny cozy apartment!
It was my first cruise experience and man...let me tell you...it was like...buffet all the way for the entire weekend,
I did my best to restrain myself from the dining area...until the last day...I couldn't hold it anymore...way too much food...way too much...

I also had an awesome seafood ceviche in Ensenada, heard that the place I went was actually aired on National Geographic channel,
Any details? I'll keep you posted, but first let me write about this recipe here.

So why I chose to make chicken soup noodles as my first meal after my cruise vacation?
First, after few days without Asian rice and noodles, I'm in a huge craving for some Oriental comfort food,
Second, there was a sale in the supermarket, the whole chicken only costs me $2.81!
By the way, a tip here for you folks out there who want to save some $$,
If you see any whole chicken sales, just buy it!!!
You can do so many things with it,
Simply roast the bird and save the meat for other dishes,
The bones can further be utilized for chicken stock,
No time to deal with the chicken? Just throw it into the freezer first!

Anyways, I got too excited talking about chicken sales there,
So another reason is that I got sick....and if you know me well..you'll know that I never loose my appetite while I'm sick...
But being sick means no more energy for me to go out for food...or even cook some fancy stuff at home, (more like I prefer to lay on the sofa, , and doing absolutely nothing for the next few days)
As a result, chicken soup noodles it is, super simple and very comforting!

Oh! please don't panic here hearing that I got sick after I'm back from Mexico!!!
And don't you dare to report me to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention!
I checked, it's just a seasonal flu, nothing related to "oink oink" flu! Calm down yo!

Ingredients (for a gigantic pot of soup)?

1 medium chicken
25 shitake mushrooms
1 medium daikon (coarsely chopped)
1 large carrot (coarsely chopped)
1 onion (chopped)
2 stalks of scallion
1 medium sized ginger
Water
Salt

How?

To clean the chicken, rinse it under cold water for couple minutes,
Remember to clean the cavity area too,
I saved the neck bones and the inner organs, but those are not required for the soup.

Pour the water in a big, deep pot, about 70% full, turn the heat up,
Meanwhile, remove the stems from the scallion and mushrooms, peel the ginger, and chop all other vegetables,
Transfer the chicken with all the veggies into the pot, bring to a boil.
(You can also add celery and tofu into the mixture)

After the water is boiling, turn the heat to medium/low, just let it simmer for at least 2 hours,
Remember to scoop out the foamy bubbles constantly, otherwise it'll leave an "unclean" taste to the soup.

Ideally, I would cook the soup for 4 hours and leave it overnight before serving,
Add the salt when you're done cooking it,
I used a lot of salt since it's such a huge pot of chicken soup,
Just add a little bit at a time and give it a taste to adjust the flavor.

Move on to the noodles part-

I used wide Asian dry noodles, cooked them for about 8 minutes and here's my ultimate comfort food-

The chicken just comes right off the bones since it's been cooking in the soup for so long,
You can dip the meat in soy sauce while eating the noodles,
Hope this meal will make me feel better soon...
Stupid flu!!

P.S.
I did it!! I still managed to update my blog while my head is spinning like a roller coaster!