Mennonite Chicken Soup -- Mark II

I did it again ... I cooked :-)

Kidding .... I cook all the time, mainly Indian curries, near-perfect steaks and what not. But today was special ... I treated myself to my favorite soup of all-time, the Mennonite Chicken Soup. Jonny does not like this soup (insane I think), but since he is at a friend's cottage, I have the run of the place this weekend and thus I choose what is cooked. :-)

The last time I blogged this adventure, I gave the full recipe and a step by step account. Today, I experimented with some minor adjustments to my mother's recipe, things I wanted to try anyway, since my taste buds require a high degree of input (hence my love of Indian, Sechzuan, Hunan and even Ethiopian cuisines.)

So I made three changes today:

• Add a chopped onion to the broth.
• Add all ingredients at the beginning and leave them in for the entire duration.
• Salt the broth by adding a can of Campbell's chicken broth.
  

So, to start things off:


Oh yeah ... I also increased the amount of Star Anise seed ... 3 instead of one large, and the amount of Bay Leaves ... lots :-) So that's four changes ... and after a while, it gets to boiling ...


I set it to simmer and cover it. I photographed the pool and garden (yes, again) and then chatted with my mother for 90 minutes. And so on .... until it was done 4 hours later.


After straining the broth, I picked apart the chicken and set that aside. The noodles were cooking by this time, I used the same ones as last time ... traditional German egg noodles, the super thin variety. They take exactly 4 minutes to achieve perfection.

And then to serve ...


OMFG ... this soup is sooooooooooooooooooooo good!