This is a version of a chicken noodle soup, with a little Asian flair. I approached this like you would a pho, where the elements are cooked separately, added together at the end, and then placed over the cooked noodles. The first time I made this I used rice noodles as the base. For this particular iteration I went with the more robust soba noodles.
You can use almost any mixture of ingredients when making this soup. I kept it fairly simple and just used 2 types of mushrooms, broccolini, carrots, scallions, chicken thighs, tofu, and noodles. The underlying flavor in this soup comes from a couple of places, the marinated chicken, the sear on the vegetables, and most importantly, the broth. I made a base broth for this though you can use a high quality store bought product as well. The benefit of making your own is that you can impart the flavors you are looking for into the broth itself, then use it to cook your ingredients. For this particular soup, I added rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, and ginger into the stock.
Once the stock was made, I used it to blanche the broccolini, braised the chicken as well as the carrots. As you use your stock to cook items, you are imparting those flavors into it, ensuring that your soup has all of the flavors married into it. After everything had been prepared I mixed all the ingredients together, barring the noodles and the broth, then returned the broth to the stove and seasoned it to taste. Once done, I added the ingredients into the pot and heated them through. I put those on top of the noodles and poured the liquid over it. Then I garnished with shichimi-togarashi (a Japanese spice blend) as well as julienned daikon.
One other step that I normally do when using tofu in a soup is to marinate and press it. I liberally seasoned it, then put weight on it for about 1 hour. Tofu frequently has a very high moisture content and I wanted to get as much of the liquid out of it, before I put it into a well seasoned soup.
Enjoy
Ingredients
Chicken Thighs 3 lb
Avenue Spice 1 tsp
Mustard, dijon 1 T
Ginger, minced 1 T
Garlic, minced 2 T
Blend Oil 1 T
Enoki Mushrooms 8 oz
Matsutake Mushrooms 10 oz
Chicken Stock 4 qt
Garlic, sliced 3 oz
Ginger, diced 2 oz
Rice Wine Vinegar 3 oz
Soy Sauce 4 oz
Broccolini 12 oz
Carrots, crescent sliced 3 ea
Scallions, sliced 1 bu
Soba Noodles*, cooked 14 oz
Tofu, firm, pressed 1 block
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Daikon, julienned 2 oz
*you can substitute any noodle you would like. I went to soba because I wanted the long thread and a heartier noodle.
Garnish
Julienned daikon radish, shichimi-togarashi
Method of Procedure
Marinate your chicken thighs in oil, garlic, ginger, shichimi-togarashi, mustard and Avenue Spice overnight.
After your have made your chicken stock, or purchased your broth from the store, add rice wine vinegar and soy sauce to it.* Reduce the liquid until it is lightly glossy.
Sear and braise your chicken thighs with your stock and place any leftover liquid into your base broth.
Marinate your tofu block liberally with shichimi-togarashi and place a decent weight on top. Make sure you put it into a container that will hold the liquid that comes out.
Bring your stock to a boil and blanche off your broccolini, removing it when done then placing it into an ice bath. Once cooled, slice into smaller portions.
Saute your mushrooms in oil until you get color. Start with your larger mushrooms, then finish with the enokis.
Dice your tofu into cubes.
Saute your carrots and add a little of the fortified broth to cook through.
Cook off your noodles and shock, then toss with a little oil to prevent sticking.
Slice your chicken thighs and mix them with all of your ingredients barring the noodles and broth.
Heat a portion of broth and add the appropriate amount of chicken and vegetables to it. Add your sliced scallions to the soup base.
Place about 3 oz of noodles into a bowl. Pour the chicken, vegetables, and broth on top.
Garnish with daikon and shichimi-togarashi.
Enjoy.
*If you are making stock for this soup, please make sure to add garlic and ginger to the process, if not add it now.
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