Pre Cooking Chicken For Soup

How should I precook chicken for chicken noodle soup?

All the recipes call for precooked chicken so I'm wondering what the best way is to cook it beforehand.

level 1

I shortcut with a supermarket rotisserie.

level 1

Comment deleted by user · 6y

level 2

You'd need a huge pot to boil an entire chicken, though, and it'd create an enormous amount of soup. Great for feeding an army, maybe not so great for feeding one or two people.

level 1

Pretty much whatever is easiest.

Sauteing or roasting will give you the best flavor, or you can poach or boil it if you want it to be more tender.

level 1

What kind of chicken do you have? A whole chicken? Breast, thighs? If you have a whole chicken I would roast it for sure. Anything else I would season, pan fry, then dice before adding to the soup. I've never had poached chicken that I like all that much. I think you get much better flavor from other methods.

level 1

i've tried both roasted & poached chicken breast and i find the former gives the soup a darker, meatier taste (even when you take the skin off). But if you want one that's lighter, more in a consomme broth, go with poaching. It would be interesting to try a sou-vide breast but i don't have access to that kind of machine. The key point is not to overcook the breasts once you add it to the broth.

level 2

So the chicken should be slightly undercooked before adding it to the broth?

level 1

The advantage to poaching is that you can capture flavoring in the poaching liquid.

level 1

Browning it tastes better.

level 2

Browning your vegetables, especially the onions makes it better as well.

level 1

Rotisserie chicken from the grocery store.

Poach/braise.

Roast.

level 1

Poach the chicken in the amount of liquid that the soup calls for, then use that liquid as the broth for the soup.

level 1

I always add a pack of chicken wings to my stock for extra collagen. After about an hour you can take the wings out of the stock and pull off the meat with a pair of forks (it'll come right off). Reserve this meat for the soup and put the rest of the wingstuff back in the pot.

I think wing meat is perfect for soup, it just has the right size and texture to get along with the vegetables and noodles. I never was a fan of chicken breast in soup. I suppose thigh meat would also be nice.