What am I doing wrong with my soup?

[Parsleyforme]

Really fancied chicken noodle, thought I would make a couple of big pots. But I can never get more than one pot of soup and it’s always so much work for something a bit bland!

My process:
Roast large chicken
Fry off mirepoix
Put carcass in with mirepoix, parsley and chives, cover with half water half stock, boil for 6+ hours

But then what do I add? I’ve got one pot of liquid and it’s taken 4 stock cubes to give it any flavour. I’ve resorted to a pinch of MSG which has helped. About to give up and add the chicken meat and noddles. Why is my carcass stock always so bland and how do I get a bigger amount of tasty soup?

Your stock needs onions, carrots, celery, garlic, peppercorns, salt plus any other veg bits you’ve got like leek ends, parsley stalks, maybe some woodier herbs, fresh or dried. I’d add the parsley and chives later in the simmer. For one chicken carcass, I’d use at least a couple of halved onions and 8 garlic cloves. You don’t need to peel either.

Roast the carcass again for Maillard reaction/flavour. Add water. simmer in slow cooker with onion, celery, carrott, parsley stalks, bay leaf, peppercorn, blade mace. Strain. Salt and pepper. Then mirepoix, stock, chicken, noodles?

https://www.recipetineats.com/homemade-chicken-noodle-soup-from-scratch/

Simmer, don't boil and for less time. And add proper stock flavourings at the start.

I think you should be able to get decent flavour from the carcass. I sometimes roast the bones first. I then cover with water without anything else and stick in the oven for a few hours. Then use that stock for soup. I make a made up Chinese chicken noodle soup so it has garlic, Chinese 5 spice, chilli, miso paste, soy sauce. Maybe a stock cube. (I think miso is a good flavouring anyway.).Add the shredded chicken and noodles at the end. Maybe spinach leaves or pak choi and strips of carrot.

I wouldn't fry/add mirepoix. I do onion/carrot/celery in large (uncooked) chunks, the carcass, peppercorns, bay leaf, water. Simmer slowly, skim scum. Don't boil.
If it's not a good chicken, I'd be inclined to roast the bones as pps suggested.

I though mirepoix was onions, carrot and celery?

I usually fry my base ingredients for at least 20 mins before adding anything else. It caramalises the natural sugars within the veg and gives it a really intense flavour.

if you’re just using that as a base for stock you’ll need bay leaf, thyme etc. which you remove towards the end.

I use a whole chicken ...

It is, but I meant it more as the finely chopped version rather than just veg chucked in. For me, it gives better flavour in chunks.

You need to roast those bones before adding to the pot.

You need more than one carcass. I freeze them, usually 3 or 4. One turkey is enough at Christmas.

Cover with water, add 1-2 carrots, onion (skin and all), celery, bay leaves, black pepper corns, salt and assorted herbs. All 8n big chunks, pretty much whole.
Simmer for couple of hours.

This is a great chicken noodle soup recipe once you get the stock made.

www.nigella.com/recipes/thai-chicken-noodle-soup

Separate out making the stock from making the soup.

Add your carcass, onion in half carrots and celery snapped in three, peppercorns bay leaves and bouquet garni to a pot and simmer slowly for several hours or slow cook overnight.
Then strain your stock and make your soup.

Mirepoix gently softened until it’s sweet, add chicken and herbs and stock and noodles.

I buy carcass & giblets from the butcher, boil in a pressure cooker & skim the fat. Add a whole onion, chunks of carrot & celery, garlic, herbs, worcestershire sauce, stock & cook for an hour or to pressurised to get the flavour, not boil down. Can do it in a low oven for about 3 hours. Been making it for years.

Are you trying to make stock or soup? Sounds like half way between?

Stock: you need more bones. I usually have a carcass plus the bones of maybe 2-3 packs of thighs or wings. I stash bones in the freezer till I have enough. Add carrot, leek, onion (whole not chopped) and bay leaf. Cover with water, bring just to the boil and then simmer for hours. Do not let it boil or you will get cloudy fatty stock. Simmer till reduced right down, strain out all the bones and scraps, allow to set in fridge, scrape off fat. Yes it’s a faff!!

Chicken soup: brown a chicken thigh or two. Add chopped veg (leek, carrot) and fry gently. Add your homemade stock (I like to add pearl barley too) and then simmer till chicken is fully cooked and slightly falling off the bone. Shred chicken and discard bone (put it in freezer for next stock round…). Or you can use bought stock.

Nigella’s chicken soup has mustard in it which goes surprisingly well.

If you have a Ninja multi cooker or a One Pot, pressure cooking is the best way, I do a chicken carcass, chicken legs that I have roasted, whole onions, carrots, celery, head of garlic, bayleaf, parsley & thyme, I often add stock cubes & a couple of bags of ready done bone broth from the supermarket, put all the chicken skin in & cider vinegar to extract the collagen, I put mine on for 90 minutes pressure cook then leave overnight to cool down. Next day strain all the stock, if there is any solid chicken fat on top, keep that in a jar in the fridge, it makes the best roast potatoes. I make simple soup using the stock with finely chopped carrot, onion & celery fried off, then add stock, Jux garlic & a couple of chicken stock pots, once all the veg is soft enough I thicken with potato starch to improve how it feels in your mouth.

I love that this thread is just people repeatedly telling the OP to do what she's literally told us she's already done 🤦🏻‍♀️

My advice would be to use more salt (the reason restaurant food tastes so good is because they use more salt than anyone wants to admit) and then maybe something like miso or soy for the umami kick. And chopping your veg gives a bigger surface area so it releases flavour more quickly as well as caramelising and adding that flavour too so that's something to consider if you haven't already.

Thank you OP. I didn't know what mirepoix was until today.

Thanks everyone, sounds like I’m not adding enough veg, bits and seasoning at the beginning - I thought the mirepoix was the veg and that seasoning comes at the end! I’ll also try using more bones and roasting them again for more flavour.
My boyfriend said my soup was good in the end, but I feel like I could’ve skipped the carcass and just used bought stock instead! So will try these tips for the next one

As others have pointed out, you’re confusing the two elements of stock making and soup making. I’ll just add that if you have an InstantPot/pressure cooker, they make fabulous stock that you can then use to make the soup.

My granny always put a dash of vinegar in and I do the same. Gives a nice savoury finish to the stock x

If I’m making chicken soup from scratch, I use raw chicken. There’s a difference between making chicken stock from the leftover carcass of a roast chicken, and making echte goldene yoich. No idea how to spell that! It means proper golden soup. The gold colour (and flavour) comes from the chicken fat - schmalts - which you lose when you use a roasted carcass.

My mum’s method (from memory, so I hope I don’t miss out the tweaks that you remember as you’re doing it):

Put a whole chicken (or thighs plus giblets) into a pressure cooker, cover with cold water and bring to a simmer. Simmer, not boil. When the scum rises, skim off as much as you can.

Now add:
A peeled onion studded with half a dozen whole cloves.
A couple of large carrots, peeled and cut into 1” chunks.
A couple of sticks of celery, cut into 1” chunks.
Some whole peppercorns (1/2 tsp?)
A pinch of saffron or turmeric.
2 bay leaves
A generous pinch of cinnamon
A generous pinch of salt
A long strip of lemon peel

Add more water if necessary to cover it all. Bring to pressure and cook for about 30mins (depends upon the weight of the chicken). In a normal saucepan it takes about 2.5 times s as long.

Allow to depressurise without releasing the valve.

Now this is the secret ‘ingredient’ - leave it alone until the following day. (Obviously you can put it in the fridge once the pan is cold.) This gives time for the schmalts flavours to develop.

The following day the fat will have solidified and you can remove it. The soup should have turned into a soft jelly. Lift out the meat (It’s easier to do this cold) and separate the bits you want to keep. Return them to the soup.

When you want to serve the soup, heat it, season to taste, and add your noodles.

Mmmm 😋 memories of childhood - mine and my children’s!

Six hours? Be cheaper to buy a tin 😣

As a fellow chicken soup maker I agree. Raw chicken every time you can use cooked bones for other types of soup as a stock base but not for the real thing. Knedlach? I find them too heavy normally x

Real chicken stock is always much weaker than shop bought. Even chefs use shop bought. I managed to make about 300ml of decent stock once by putting two ex-chickens in the slow cooker for 24 hrs with about 800ml of water (and onions, garlic, star anise,thyme, rosemary and preserved lemon).

I was delicious but totally not worth the effort or ingredients. Just use shop bought.

How much of yourself did you manage to eat?

Dm always made kneidlach because df didn’t like getting noodles in his beard. Dgm would put lokshen in.