Are you counting? This is new recipe #3 of the weekend. Like I told you, I’ve been feeling adventurous. :)
After a Saturday night of pizza, beer, wine, and pumpkin pie snickerdoodle bars, we knew we were going to be in the mood for something a bit healthier. Considering I spend most of Sundays in my sweats, there is something to be said about making comfort food on Sundays, too.
As someone who is a bit tired of the same old chicken noodle soup, I was happy to come across this recipe during my planning earlier this week. Take all of my favorite chicken noodle soup ingredients, and then add Asian flavors? I’m sold. As a bonus, this is incredibly easy and fast to cook up. Perfect for a weeknight lazy Sunday.
The end result was a wonderfully flavorful version of chicken noodle soup. It also had a little kick to it (thanks to the red pepper flakes), which I loved.
(Check it out. You can see my reflection in my spoon!)
I made some adjustments to the recipe based on comments in the reviews. Essentially, I just added more veggies. My version of the recipe is below. For some of the ingredients (peas, carrots, cilantro, and red pepper flakes), the amounts listed below are estimates. I didn’t actually measure them, but just threw these ingredients in until I thought it looked like the appropriate amount. For the red pepper flakes, you’ll want to be careful–if you add too much, it’ll obviously be very spicy!
Asian Chicken Noodle Soup
(Source: Adapted from Cooking Light)
Ingredients:
– 1 tbsp. vegetable oil
– 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
– 1 tbsp. bottled grated ginger
– 3 tbsp. bottled lemongrass (or grated lemongrass in a tube)
– 2 cups water
– 2 (14-ounce) cans fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
– 3/4 cup frozen peas
– 3/4 cup matchstick carrots
– 1 lb. chicken breast tenders, cut into bite-sized pieces
– 4-5 oz. uncooked angel hair/thin spaghetti pasta (we used whole wheat)
– 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro (or 1 tbsp. dried)
– 1 tbsp. fresh lime juice
– 1/2 tsp. salt (I omitted)
– 4 green onions, thinly sliced
– 1 red chile pepper, finely chopped (or red pepper flakes, to taste–I used about 1-2 tsp.)
Directions:
1. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic, ginger, and lemongrass; sauté 3 minutes.
2. Add water and broth; add peas and carrots; bring everything to a boil. Add chicken and pasta; cook 5 minutes or until chicken is done.
3. Remove from heat; stir in remaining ingredients. Let stand 5 minutes.
Note: Of course, you can use fresh lemongrass if you can find it. They didn’t have it at my supermarket, but they had the grated version in a tube in the produce section. Ultimately, I ended up finding a jar of it in the Asian foods section, so I picked that up instead.
6 Responses to Asian Chicken Noodle Soup
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About
I'm Heather. I'm 33 and have been married to Michael for seven years. Together, we have two beautiful little girls we love more than anything, and a miniature dachshund who drives us crazy. I'm a full-time working mom who has very little time for my own "stuff" these days, like home improvement, cooking/baking, cake decorating, and photography. Despite the team not making the playoffs since 1999, I'm STILL a Buffalo Bills fan, which I think speaks to my loyalty AND sense of humor. I can't wait to pick up the pace with travel again some day... you know, when we're done being ruled by tiny fists. Welcome to my blog.
You know, Heather, when I stumbled upon your blog I was on secondment in Paris. I had just moved and was in the mood for comforting and easy food. When you posted your chicken noodle soup recipe, will you believe that I actually *dreamt* about it? Seriously!
Clearly I went on to make it and love it. I have since varied it a lot depending on what I have in the house.
I like to add some soy sauce to mine and I cook it with big chunks of ginger which I then remove before serving. I also love putting chestnut mushrooms in there. For a thai twist you can put lemongrass, lemon, tomyum paste and nam pla, replacing the chicken with prawns… it’s such great soup and so versatile!
I am going to make the variant you just posted this week. Thank you for introducing chicken noodle soup to me just when I needed it the most! ;)
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Hi Heather, one question. The frozen peas and carrots are essentially just bathed in the soup for 5 minutes? Is that enough? I am going to give this a try this week. Thanks for sharing!
Vanessa–That is awesome. :) And yes, you’re right, chicken noodle soup is so adaptable. I’m glad you enjoy it!
Pie – Sorry, I realized I forgot to alter the instructions to include the peas and carrots. I’ll go back and do that now.
To clarify–I used frozen peas, but the matchstick carrots weren’t frozen. But it doesn’t matter, as you could use frozen carrots, too.
I threw the vegetables into the pan right after I added the broth and water. Then I let the broth come to a boil (as indicated in the original instructions) before I added the pasta and chicken. I let everything boil for 5-6 minutes.
It was enough time! The veggies were perfect. :)
Enjoy!
Looks yum xoxo
SC