Chicken Udon Noodle Soup

Tags

Chinese, healthy, Home Cooking, Noodles, One bowl meal, Soup

Chicken Soup made with whole chicken and spare ribs

This is one of the easiest dishes that you can prepare beforehand. It is basically just udon noodles and chicken soup. You can even cook a big pot of chicken soup and freeze it. If you ever feel a little peckish or in need of a hot bowl of noodles and soup, just pop some frozen soup into a saucepan and heat it up before adding to the noodles. Of course you can reach for your favourite instant noodles like Indomie, tomyum, instant ramen and the like. However if you are like me and have outgrown your fair share of instant noodles having OD-ed on them in college/university, you would come to appreciate the healthy, non-MSG broth. Just as with instant noodles, you can add whatever toppings you desire. My usual toppings tend to be fishballs and vegetables.

Ingredients

Soup (for 7-8 pax)

1. 1 Whole chicken
2. 3-4 Spare ribs chunks
3. 4-5 Cloves of peeled Garlic, smushed
4. Optional: 2 Medium Carrots, 1 Large Onion and some fresh Corn
5. 2-3 tbsp Soy sauce or to taste
6. 1/2 tbsp White pepper

Noodles

1. Udon noodles (You can buy these from supermarkets in packets)

Toppings/Condiments

1. 4 Fish balls per bowl
2. Vegetables, you could use spinach, pak choy, whatever you like
3. 2-3 Chilli padi pieces per person, sliced
4. Soy Sauce

Cooking Instructions

1. Rinse the chicken in running water and get rid of any remaining feathers. Clean out the cavity of the chicken and rinse with running water as well. 
2. Next, remove excess fat and skin of the chicken. You do not want all the extra chicken grease floating about on the surface of the soup. I like to remove the head of the chicken (I feel guilty and sick everytime I fish out the chicken head from the soup so I just remove it at the start) as well as the tail of the chicken as I find the smell/taste too strong. Kind of like… chicken bum =(
3. Lower the chicken and spare ribs into boiling hot water for about 5 minutes to get rid of the extra blood and fat. Throw out this water after 5 minutes and replenish the pot with fresh hot water. Make sure you have enough water to cover the whole chicken and have about 2 inches of water above the chicken.
4. At this point you can add the garlic. If you prefer your broth to be a little sweeter, throw in some chunks of carrot, onions and fresh corn. You may add sliced ginger as well if you like.
5. As the water boils, skim off the scum and fat from the surface of the soup. You can recognize it by the dirty looking froth that emerges after several minutes of cooking the soup. These would consist of fat and blood and if not removed, will cloud the soup. Continuously skimming off the scum as you cook will give you a clear, appetizing broth.
6. Keep the pot on medium-high heat for about 40 minutes, then turn off the gas and let it stand for another hour. Season with white pepper and light soy sauce.
7. Prepare the udon according to the packet instructions, make sure you do not cook the udon in the chicken broth itself as it imparts its flavour into the soup. Not yummy at all. Also ensure that udon is still chewy, don’t overcook it as it gets mushy.
8. Drain the water from your noodles and place in serving bowl.
9. Cook your fishballs and vegetables in the soup.
10. Ladle your soup, fishballs, vegetables and some chicken meat into the serving bowl over the noodles.
11. Serve with cut chilli padi and soy sauce.

Udon noodles and the vegetable of your choice

Udon soup in Chicken broth served with cut chilli padi and soy sauce

Oyakodon

Tags

chicken, eggs, healthy, japanese, mains, rice

A dish made with chicken, eggs, onions, sake and mirin

Oyakodon is a Japanese dish consisting of chicken and onions simmered in a dashi broth with eggs lusciously and carelessly drizzled over the whole mixture. The eggs should be silky smooth and the chicken tender and juicy. It is also called the “Parent and child” donburi (donburi = a sort of Japanese rice dish in a bowl) for obvious reasons; the egg and the chicken.

My brother loves this dish and always orders it at restaurants but it is pretty easy to make once you’ve gotten the hang of it. I tend to mess this recipe up when cooking for many people but it’s easy cooking for one or two people at a time. It’s healthy, no frying or oil in sight, thus no stinking up the kitchen (or my hair =D) while cooking. And it’s got eggs and onions, my favourite combination!

It’s the ultimate Japanese comfort food for me.

Cooking for 1-2 pax:

Ingredients

1. 2 Eggs (3 if you’re cooking for 2)
2. 1/2 a green onion, sliced
3. 1 Chicken thigh deboned and cut into bite sized pieces, skin on (1 Chicken thigh per person)
4. Dashi, I use the bottled one
5. Sake
6. Mirin
7. Light soy sauce
8. Sugar
9. Some sliced Japanese leeks for topping

Cooking the Oyakodon

1. Your rice must be already cooked and warm as you will ladle the chicken and egg mixture directly on top of the rice.
2. Crack your eggs into a separate bowl. Use a chopstick to break up the egg whites so that they separate easily. Gently break the yolk and give it a stir so its slightly mixed but not incorporated with the whites When you pour in the eggs to cook you want to have some distinct white pieces and yellow bits from the eggs. Don’t scramble the eggs.
3. Get a small saucepan ready, it shouldn’t be too big as we want the dashi/sake mixture to cover half of the onions and chicken.
4. Add about 3/4 cup of dashi and 1/4 cup of water to the saucepan. Taste your dashi sauce before cooking. You may want to make fresh dashi from scratch, by all means do but I’m too lazy! This brand of dashi that I’m using already has soy sauce in it so it’s salty.
5. Add 3 capfuls each of mirin and sake and half a tablespoon of sugar. Taste the mixture and adjust dashi, sugar or water content. Remember it has to be a bit salty as it will form the sauce for your rice. I forgot about that at one time and made the dashi mixture nice on its own but too bland when put together on the rice.
6. Heat up the dashi on medium high heat and add onions. Again remember that the dashi mixture has to cover up to half of the chicken and onions. Cover until onions are slightly translucent.
7. Add chicken bits evenly throughout the pan and try to avoid overcrowding. Cover for 1 minute. Uncover and turn the chicken chunks over to cook on the other side. Cover for 1 more minute.
8. At this point, pour half of the eggs in the bowl over the chicken and onions. Make sure the eggs are evenly distributed throughout the pan. Cover for 10 seconds til partially cooked but still runny. You could cook it further if you prefer your eggs cooked through. Pour the rest of the eggs evenly into the pan. Switch to high heat for 1-2 seconds and turn off the heat, covering entire mixture, and let stand for half a minute.
9. Ladle your rice into a bowl and spoon the chicken and egg mixture on top carefully so as to keep the shape of the eggs chunky and silky.
10. Top the whole bowl with shreds or slice of raw Japanese leek which lends a crunchy accent and spicy punch to this sweetish savoury chicken dish.