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Rainy Season Chicken Soup

Source of Recipe

From "Goldy's Kitchen Cookbook" by Diane Mott Davidson


Recipe Introduction

"This soup is for those times when you need a good chicken soup for a sick child, neighbor, or friend. The fideo makes it exotic. Don't worry about adding dry white vermouth, as the alcohol cooks out. Feel free to use regular sour cream, as we now know it's not the sour cream that makes you fat, it's the pasta...but kids will look askance if you give them what is basically a glammed-up chicken noodle soup, with no noodles. So go ahead and put them in."

List of Ingredients

â—¦ 2 dried porcini mushrooms
â—¦ 2 tablespoons butter
â—¦ 2 leeks, white part only, split, rinsed, and diced
â—¦ 1 medium carrot, diced
â—¦ 1 medium onion, diced
â—¦ 1 large celery stalk, diced
â—¦ 2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
â—¦ 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
â—¦ 2 tablespoons dry white vermouth
â—¦ 4 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade
â—¦ 1 cup regular or light sour cream
â—¦ 1 cup fideo (fine egg noodle strands)
â—¦ Salt and freshly ground black pepper


Recipe

In a small saucepan, bring 1 cup spring water to a boil and drop in the porcini mushrooms. (If you live in a place with bad-tasting tap water, use spring water.) Cook uncovered over medium-high heat for 10 minutes. Drain the mushrooms, pat them dry, and thinly slice. Set aside.

In a large sauté pan, melt the butter over low heat. Add the leeks, carrot, onion, celery, and chicken, stir gently, cover, and cook for 5 minutes. Uncover, stir the vegetables, turn the chicken, and check for doneness. (The chicken should be about half done.) Cover and cook until chicken is *just* done—not overdone—about another 5 minutes. Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside to cool.

Sprinkle the flour over the melted butter, vegetables, and pan juices and stir to cook the flour over low heat for 2 minutes. Slowly add the white vermouth and 2 cups of the chicken stock. Stir and cook until bubbling and thickened. Add the sour cream very slowly, and allow to cook gently while you cut the chicken into thin, bite-size pieces.

In a large skillet, bring the remaining 2 cups stock to a boil. Add the fideo and cook 4 minutes, or until almost done. Do not drain. Slowly add the noodle mixture to the hot vegetables and sour cream mixture. Add the chicken and the mushrooms and bring back to a boil. Serve immediately.

Makes 4 servings