Before I share today’s recipe, I want to preface this post with one important truth: my husband and I are not gourmet chefs. Sometimes we get a little less Jacques Pepin and a little more Sandra Lee, depending on time. (And if you watch cooking shows as much as we do, you’ll get the joke. If not, you need to Wikipedia both of these names immediately!)

I say this because while most food posts that I see use all fresh ingredients or lots of fancy items that seem more at home in a Chopped basket, Matt and I pride ourselves on being able to use ingredients we find on sale and throwing them together to create one delicious meal! Canned and/or frozen vegetables, store-bought chicken stock, dried spices, leftovers, etc. (But from time to time, we do try ingredients that should be in a Chopped basket….mainly out of curiosity.)

Which brings me to tonight’s tasty treat: ramen noodles. Now, for those of you who have either been a college student or looking for ways to eat on a budget, ramen is your best friend. And especially on a late night of studying where Easy Mac is just not cutting it, ramen was perfect. Yet I enjoyed dressing up my ramen a little bit, especially with a little bit of egg and some sage & thyme. But what most don’t realize about ramen, it makes for great noodles in chicken soup! (Not to mention, one of those flavor packets can definitely be a bonus if you’re looking to add a little bit of flavor in a pinch! With a big batch of soup, one packet will not cram what feels like a metric ton of sodium into your meal.) And if you have leftover chicken (like we did from our braised chicken on Sunday) and a little bit of the liquid that the chicken was cooked in (like we did), then making a quick and easy chicken soup can be accomplished! And no worries if you don’t save the residual cooking liquid….you can always use chicken broth and seasonings to accomplish a similar effect.

This is not my slow-cooker recipe (which I may share at a later date, because once winter gets here, lots of meals end up being made in the Crock Pot, even homemade chicken stock), but rather a quick recipe for those of us who work all day and need to figure out dinner. (And with Matt and I immersed in hectic work schedules, if a meal takes longer than an hour or two, frustration and hunger is going to set in. Never a good combination.)

You can create this dish any way you like, maybe you like more veggies and less noodles, maybe more chicken, maybe different spices….just don’t be afraid to dress up ramen noodles! They’re an inexpensive find at the supermarket and a great reason to use leftovers! So here’s our version, a chicken soup concoction that made my husband tell me it’s the “best soup he’s ever had”.

Enjoy!

~ Jenny V

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Jenn’s “Grown-Up” Ramen Chicken Soup

3 packages Ramen Noodles, Chicken Flavor

2-4 cooked chicken thighs, skinned, de-boned, and diced

1-2 cups concentrated chicken stock (preferably liquid you cooked the chicken thighs in)

6-7 cups water (depending on how much you love broth, you can always add more)

One can mixed vegetables

One medium onion, diced

2-3 stalks celery, diced

1 tablespoon poultry seasoning

1 tablespoon sage

1 tablespoon thyme

Salt & pepper to taste

Butter

1) In a stockpot over medium-high heat, add chicken stock, water, poultry seasoning, sage, and thyme. After about 4-6 minutes, add diced chicken and give broth a stir.

2) In a separate saute pan, over medium-high heat, throw in 2 tablespoons of butter and allow to melt thoroughly. Once pan has had a chance to warm, throw in onion and celery, cooking until onions start to look translucent. And if needed and vegetables start to brown a little, add additional butter by the tablespoon until translucency is achieved. Once cooked, remove and add to soup mixture with can of vegetables. Turn heat on high and bring soup to a boil.

3) Take ramen noodle packets and roughly break up package. (I normally try to break them up, one break horizontally, one vertical.) Open package, remove flavor packet and add noodles to soup. Stir to submerge noodles in broth.

4) Check flavor of broth. If needed, add just one flavor packet from the noodles, then finish up with salt and pepper until desired flavor achieved. Once noodles are cooked through, turn off and serve!