Name: Bigly Chicken Noodle Soup
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 75 min
Total time: 90 min
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients: 1 (3.5-4 lb) whole chicken; 1 large yellow onion, quartered; 4 medium carrots; 4 celery stalks; 6 garlic cloves, smashed; 2 bay leaves; 1 tsp whole black peppercorns; small handful fresh parsley stems; 2 tsp, plus more to taste kosher salt; 10 cups water; 8 oz wide egg noodles; 3 tbsp fresh dill, chopped; 3 tbsp fresh parsley leaves, chopped; 2 tsp lemon juice, fresh

Bigly Chicken Noodle Soup

Prep

15m

Cook

75m

Total

90m

Bigly says

Sit down for this one. Chicken noodle soup. The BIGLY version. The only version that matters. I have eaten chicken noodle soup on four continents — possibly five, the geography people are still arguing about it, very confusing situation — and I'm telling you right now, end of discussion, it's a slaughter, nobody is doing chicken noodle soup like Bigly. Nobody. Not even close.

Here's the problem with chicken noodle soup in this country. Are you ready? The problem is they're using chicken BREASTS. The dry, sad, joyless, gym-membership of a chicken. The chicken that has given up on life. Bigly does not use the breast. Bigly uses the WHOLE BIRD, bones in, skin on, the whole tremendous bird, because that's where the flavor lives, that's where the soul of the soup lives. Scientists — and I've talked to scientists, very smart people, the smartest, a food chemist cornered me at a wedding once and explained the collagen situation for ninety minutes, I lost a shoe but I gained KNOWLEDGE — the scientists agree, the bones do the work. The so-called chefs strip the soul out and then hand you a bouillon cube. A salty little brick of disappointment. A disgrace to broth.

And the noodles — and I'm getting heated, I'm getting passionate, that's what happens, the soup is important — the noodles are added at the END. AT THE END. You cook them in the broth, you serve immediately. Most chefs are afraid to do this. They tell you to make the soup ahead of time. With the noodles. IN THE SOUP. Do you know what noodles do when they sit in hot broth for two hours? They EAT the soup. They drink it. You come back to a pot of glue. It's a crime against broth. We're not doing that. We're doing this right. It's just a fact.

Ingredients

1 (3.5-4 lb)whole chicken(bones and skin do the work, don't skip them)
1 largeyellow onion, quartered
4 mediumcarrots(2 left whole for the broth, 2 sliced for serving)
4celery stalks(2 whole for broth, 2 sliced for serving)
6garlic cloves, smashed
2bay leaves
1 tspwhole black peppercorns
small handfulfresh parsley stems
2 tsp, plus more to tastekosher salt
10 cupswater
8 ozwide egg noodles
3 tbspfresh dill, chopped
3 tbspfresh parsley leaves, chopped
2 tsplemon juice, fresh

Steps

1
Place the whole chicken in a large stockpot. Add the quartered onion, the 2 whole carrots, the 2 whole celery stalks, garlic, bay leaves, peppercorns, parsley stems, and salt. Cover with the water.
2
Bring to a boil over high heat, then immediately reduce to a bare simmer. Skim any gray foam off the surface in the first 10 minutes — this is what makes the broth clear.
3
Simmer uncovered, undisturbed, for 60 minutes. The chicken should be tender enough that a leg pulls away with no resistance.
4
Carefully transfer the chicken to a large plate or cutting board and let cool 10 minutes. Strain the broth through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean pot. Discard the spent vegetables and aromatics.
5
Slice the remaining 2 carrots and 2 celery stalks. Add them to the strained broth and simmer 8 minutes, until tender but not mushy.
6
Meanwhile, pull the chicken meat off the bones in bite-sized pieces. Discard skin and bones (or save bones for a second-pass stock).
7
Add the egg noodles to the simmering broth and cook according to package directions, usually 6-8 minutes, until just tender.
8
Return the shredded chicken to the pot. Stir in dill, parsley, and lemon juice. Taste and adjust salt aggressively — soup needs salt. Serve immediately.

One more thing

This is the soup you make when somebody you love is sick. This is the soup you make when YOU are sick. This is the soup you make when the world is loud and the news is bad and you just want to sit in a chair with a bowl of something honest. Honest food. That's what we do here. Not 47-ingredient nonsense. Not pumpkin spice in March. Just a whole chicken, some vegetables, some noodles, and a confident hand on the salt. Now go eat.