10 Levels of Chicken Noodle Soup | With Babish

0:04 Chicken noodle soup, a soup derived from chicken and noodles.

0:08 It is a comfort to many, [music] an elixir to the sick,

0:11 and a remedy for the cold or very recently chilly.

0:14 And today, we're going to see just how far we can push the medium as I try

0:18 to make 10 levels of chicken tacos noodle soup

0:23 chicken noodle soup 10 levels of chicken noodle soup.

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1:23 Why is chicken noodle is the thing that Big Pharma doesn't want

1:28 you to know is that chicken immediately and inconvertibly cures all diseases.

1:34 It's I did I did my own research.

1:38 [music]

1:37 And and I'm I'm, you know, presenting my findings here now with you today.

1:43 I also made my own disclaimer for the bottom of this um just just for safety.

1:49 That's that's for the best.

1:50 You should keep that there.

1:52 Anyway, level one.

1:53 Level one chicken noodle soup is something probably best suited for the infirmed

1:57 or a child who needs [music] more salt in their diet.

2:01 Lipton noodle soup.

2:02 A soup mix with real chicken flavor broth.

2:05 You [music] might notice that the word flavor is very very

2:07 small to throw you off the scent that this contains no chicken.

2:13 The these kinds [music] of noodles only cook up

2:15 either massively undercooked or soft enough to swallow without chewing.

2:20 You decide.

2:21 And I have a soft spot for for for Lipton chicken noodle flavor soup.

2:25 It's what my mom would make for me when I was sick sometimes.

2:28 It's it's a very familiar smell and [music] flavor and look.

2:31 So, I'm going to have a hard time being too too mean to this, but I

2:33 think we can all agree this is

2:34 probably the lowest expression of chicken noodle soup.

2:39 Wait.

2:40 Hold on.

2:40 This this little packet is four servings,

2:44 which means that if you ate the whole thing,

2:47 that you would take down more than 100% of your daily sodium.

2:51 This contains more than all the sodiums you're supposed to eat in a day.

2:54 And I don't think I've ever eaten less than one packet.

2:59 It's a miracle I survived childhood.

3:01 Now, to make this stuff,

3:02 we have to bring a frankly incredible four cups of water to the boil.

3:06 In goes our little packets.

3:10 All right.

3:10 Now, that cooks for 5 minutes before serving.

3:14 There we go.

3:16 It's beautiful.

3:18 It doesn't smell the way I remember.

3:19 It doesn't smell like nothing.

3:23 Ooh, it mostly tastes like salt and this completely uh imagined chicken flavor.

3:30 It's like it's like you described the way chicken

3:32 tastes to somebody and they recreated it in a lab.

3:34 The noodles are surprisingly not over or undercooked.

3:38 They're actually not bad,

3:39 but they're so small that just sitting in the hot broth for more than a minute,

3:43 they're already getting soft.

3:44 Oh, what is that flavor?

3:46 Something's changed.

3:47 I remember the smell of this wafting up from the kitchen when I was sick in bed.

3:53 I remember that.

3:54 And I can't my face in it.

3:56 I can barely smell it.

3:58 It smells like pasta cooking water.

4:00 That's what it smells like.

4:01 That is not a comfort the way I remember it being.

4:03 That is horrible and very worthy of its slot in level one.

4:08 If you had to guess,

4:09 what do you think the microplastics in canned soup like this are doing to us?

4:12 Well, I'm glad you asked that, Brad, because it's about time I came out

4:16 and said that I am a vehemently pro microplastics.

4:19 I think that they are here to slowly replace all of the bad

4:24 icky gross stuff in this If you've ever seen in there, it's disgusting.

4:28 And if you look at plastic, it's nice and it lasts longer.

4:31 Like again, I did my own research.

4:33 I just say we embrace it.

4:34 We gra- granted, you know, that's what the Campbell's CEO told me to say.

4:38 He was trying to take the aim off of what

4:41 he said about their soup being for poor people.

4:44 And he wanted to make it more about how great the microplastics are.

4:48 He gave me so much money [music] to do this research.

4:53 Level two chicken noodle soup,

4:54 one that is also a diluted facsimile of the genuine article,

4:57 but at least one that has a little bit of chicken in it.

4:59 Campbell's condensed chicken noodle soup.

5:02 It's 3:00 in the afternoon on a sick day home from school somewhere.

5:06 True to its name, Campbell's chicken noodle soup is condensed,

5:10 so we need to add one can of water.

5:12 So, something that's confusing to me, as prepared,

5:15 this makes 2 and 1/2 servings, 20 some-odd ounces of soup.

5:18 Let's call it 21 oz of soup.

5:21 And in that entire serving, there's 7 and 1/2 g of protein.

5:24 For reference, you're probably getting the exact same amount

5:26 of protein by volume just drinking homemade chicken stock.

5:31 And this has chunks of chicken in it.

5:33 So, where's all that protein?

5:34 Where's it gone?

5:35 Forget a ladle.

5:36 Let's just dump this guy in.

5:38 Okay.

5:41 [laughter] And it at least kind of resembles chicken noodle soup.

5:44 You can see noodles.

5:45 You can kind of see some chicken.

5:46 Also, I don't know whose idea it was to use strands of spaghetti,

5:52 but they can really go piss up a rope.

5:54 I don't even think it was ineptitude.

5:56 I think it was cruelty.

5:56 I think it was a cold-hearted attempt to make people feel like I I

6:00 don't even deserve this soup if I can't get it in my stupid mouth.

6:05 The broth is starting to taste like actual chicken.

6:07 Uh the chicken tastes like uh uh chicken.

6:09 I wish it weren't so repulsive to look

6:11 at these these horrible [music] little chunks.

6:13 As you might imagine, the noodles are complete mush.

6:17 I can't blame them.

6:18 They're canned noodles.

6:19 There's no way they're going to be like a pleasant

6:23 bouncy texture the way that you want pasta to be.

6:25 But it doesn't make this any more enjoyable.

6:27 I was really hoping this would melt away my proverbial

6:29 adult snowman and reveal the child inside, but um Nope.

6:34 That child remains dead with every scoop of spaghetti that

6:38 [laughter]

6:37 I can't pick up with the spoon.

6:39 Definitely a level two chicken noodle soup.

6:43 Chunky is a gross word.

6:45 Why use it to sell food?

6:47 We've encountered this in past conversations, Brad.

6:50 You think that chunky is a gross word.

6:52 However, there's an entire line of soups, Campbell's chunky.

6:54 There's a candy bar, the the chunky.

6:57 Um there's um chunky style uh um puke.

7:03 I mean, I You know, soup soup is very

7:05 pu- puke-like because what is puke but semi-digested food?

7:09 And what is soup but food that has been sort of semi-digested for you?

7:12 It's very it's heavily cooked and it's in a liquid

7:15 to help it stream right down in there.

7:17 I did my own research.

7:18 And that and it's actually perfectly safe to eat puke.

7:24 They call it Campbell's chunky.

7:26 And it's up next.

7:27 Now, it's time to chunk things up with Campbell's chunky, a non-condensed soup.

7:32 No water necessary, just dump [music] it.

7:34 Oh, the smell of canned soup.

7:36 I don't care how tasty it is.

7:38 It comes out of the can smelling funny.

7:40 All right.

7:41 These chunks are all chunked up and ready to chunk.

7:46 [music] There we go.

7:47 The broth [snorts] definitely has a deeper, [music] richer flavor.

7:50 There's lots of lovely chicken fat floating on top of that.

7:53 Just kind of hits your tongue, coats your mouth,

7:56 and just gives you this rounded chicken flavor.

7:58 So, it d- you know, tastes like chicken.

7:59 These chicken chunks have been chopped and formed.

8:03 They are an emulsified product.

8:04 You see how there's kind of like bubbles formed in it?

8:06 That's from the chicken meat being effectively liquefied,

8:09 probably some real chunks of actual chicken thrown in there.

8:12 The whole thing gets formed, cooked, and then chopped.

8:15 That's that's my best guess.

8:16 The The chicken has like a [music] uh spongy slippery texture to it.

8:21 It's definitely unpleasant.

8:22 And it really only tastes like the broth,

8:24 which is to say that it tastes like chicken.

8:26 But I d- I I feel like it's being

8:27 flavored by the broth and not the other way around.

8:29 The vegetables [music] are mush.

8:32 The noodles, less mushy than the condensed counterpart and actual,

8:37 you know, spoon-shaped scoopable noodles like,

8:40 you know, egg noodles the way that chicken noodle soup's supposed to be.

8:43 But they're still very very soft.

8:44 Like And again, it's a canned soup.

8:46 You can't get good noodles out of it.

8:47 This is a huge improvement, but there's a bitterness to the back end of it.

8:51 After you eat a bite, it kind of reminds me when I overcook stock.

8:54 The minerals and [music] the marrow and all and and the the the the not blood,

8:59 but the some kind of globin leaches out of all the bones, [music]

9:03 and you end up with this kind of bitter bony flavor.

9:06 And that's what this has.

9:07 I I think that uh some aspect of it has been cooked to death,

9:11 and it's given it this weird bitter back end.

9:14 Better flavor, better texture, still a far cry [music] from the original.

9:17 I've definitely drank gallons of this stuff back when I was in college

9:22 and in my first [music] apartment and needed to eat out of cans to stay alive.

9:25 But the moment you get to start eating non-canned foods,

9:27 you you forget that this ever existed.

9:30 Pretty lowly expression of the medium.

9:32 The very least, [music] it's it's chunky,

9:34 even if those chunks are chopped and formed.

9:40 I thought chicken noodle soup and ramen were

9:41 called different things because they are different things.

9:45 Where did I go wrong?

9:46 So many things in this world are called different things,

9:49 but [music] they aren't different things.

9:51 You might call an oven a a hot box.

9:53 You might call um a fireplace a big old hot brick boy building burden.

10:01 You might call shoes foot foot gloves.

10:05 [music] I think you've made an excellent point here today.

10:07 I think so, too.

10:08 It's It's cuz I do all my own research.

10:12 Next up, packaged chicken ramen.

10:15 It is chicken flavored and there is noodles.

10:17 So, guess what?

10:17 It's chicken noodle soup.

10:19 I don't know why, but ramen that comes in a round puck,

10:22 I just assume it's going to taste better.

10:24 Oh oh my god, there's all them kinds of packets.

10:27 Why are there two soup bases?

10:31 All right, this chicken flavor is for sure.

10:32 This looks like beef.

10:36 Oh, no, it's the spice.

10:36 Okay.

10:38 Yep.

10:40 [snorts] I forgot these are spicy.

10:42 All right, I've got two cups of water at the boil,

10:44 to which I'm going to add the soup bases.

10:47 Mix.

10:48 Let's add our flakes and cook that for 3 and 1/2 minutes.

10:52 And here [music] it comes.

10:54 Let's see what ramen does for chicken noodle soup.

10:58 It's really tasty.

10:59 Where'd you go?

11:00 It's definitely an improvement on like top ramen.

11:02 Ooh, I like the spice.

11:03 The spice is very welcome.

11:05 Definitely chicken bouillon flavor, but way better than Lipton stuff.

11:09 That that I don't know what that tasted like, but it wasn't chicken.

11:12 This tastes like meaty, spicy, tons of herbs and flavors and aromatics.

11:18 As far as being chicken noodle soup, it is.

11:22 Packaged chicken ramen, pretty awesome.

11:24 Pretty good.

11:25 I thought chicken noodle soup was supposed to warm your soul.

11:28 Why then would I eat it refrigerated?

11:30 Oh, you'd never eat it refrigerated, Bret.

11:32 I mean, you could, but if you follow the directions on the package,

11:35 it says to either microwave it or heat it up

11:37 on the stovetop and then immediately put it in the trash.

11:40 Oh.

11:43 Because it's well, stay tuned.

11:46 Next up, our very first non-shelf stable option,

11:50 refrigerated chicken noodle soup.

11:52 Uh most grocery stores have their own brand

11:54 of this, but by far the most available is Panera.

11:58 Let's see what it tastes like.

11:59 All you got to do is heat and eat.

12:01 I'd hope that this is the same product that they sell in Panera's,

12:04 but it's a big company,

12:05 so I'm guessing there's 10 different [music] legal and cost-saving

12:09 reasons that this is not the exact same formulation.

12:11 So, let's see what it tastes like.

12:12 Let's plate it up.

12:14 Oh, man, that smells weird.

12:16 That smells really weird.

12:19 Smells turned.

12:20 Smells like if I had made this, I'd throw it away.

12:23 What's going on?

12:24 All right, let's try some of the broth.

12:29 [snorts] Ooh, hold on.

12:30 I can't Oh, it can't be that bad.

12:31 No way.

12:32 Really?

12:33 Okay.

12:34 Be kind, be open.

12:37 Ooh.

12:38 It tastes turned.

12:38 It tastes off.

12:40 Hang on, let me I'm I'm going to check the container.

12:42 No, it's good for another month and a half.

12:44 Refrigerated soup that is good for a month and a half.

12:49 I don't know.

12:50 I don't know.

12:51 The broth has a lot of tang to it.

12:54 And not in a pleasant way.

12:54 It's not like lemon.

12:55 It's like just acidity.

12:58 I don't know how, but the noodles are better than canned.

13:01 Because this has been Again, it's been cooked,

13:03 it's been cooled, it's been stored.

13:04 These noodles should be sogfest.

13:06 I don't know what they do to them to make

13:07 them still have [music] a bit of bite to them,

13:10 but it can't be, in harmony with nature and God's plan.

13:14 Got some chunks of actual chicken.

13:16 Now, it appears to be all breast.

13:17 I don't see any dark meat.

13:18 And it tastes and feels like it, cuz it's dry as a bone.

13:21 Even the broth is just full of shreds of white meat.

13:24 And what that translates to is a whole bunch of dry, pulpy texture in your soup.

13:28 But every bite you take is like because of all this dry chicken.

13:32 Let's try carrot.

13:34 Flavor aside, the the carrots have no discernible flavor of their own,

13:38 but they do have a bit of a fresh vegetable bite to [music] them.

13:41 They taste like they were carrots that were simmered for 45 minutes in a soup.

13:45 Let me try the celery.

13:50 Oh.

13:50 That celery tastes like rotten food.

13:52 It tastes like rotten food.

13:56 That's where the flavor's coming from.

13:58 Ooh, regrettable.

14:00 Repugnant.

14:02 This was meant to be a demonstration of refrigerated soup at your local grocer.

14:05 And maybe Panera's not the way to go.

14:07 Maybe go with the store brand version.

14:09 You're probably going to have a better result than that.

14:11 The celery in this tastes toxic.

14:15 And not in a good way, like a Britney Spears song.

14:18 In a bad way, like it's bad for you.

14:21 Could you make this version if you don't have a house?

14:24 It's a very very common question.

14:26 Absolutely.

14:27 If you have an apartment,

14:28 um a a garage that you're crashing in, a friend's couch,

14:32 um it just just or even outdoors,

14:35 if you have a a burner and a pot, Maybe we should call this soup self-made.

14:41 Maybe we should call it you didn't build that soup.

14:44 All right, next up is a very basic homemade chicken noodle soup.

14:48 No prep, no knife, no strife, no wife, probably, if I had to guess.

14:54 Sorry.

14:55 So, I'm going to use all frozen

14:56 or pre-prepared ingredients from the grocery store,

15:00 pre-prepared chicken stock, the works.

15:02 Now, you might find yourself reaching for that box of Swanson,

15:06 but this stuff tastes like cat piss.

15:08 And if you ever drank it by its on its own, you'd know that.

15:12 But you haven't done that, have you?

15:14 That's why I'm here.

15:15 Way better option is Better Than Bouillon.

15:17 They're not a sponsor today.

15:18 I'd love for them to be.

15:20 Hit me up.

15:21 This stuff, dollars to donuts,

15:23 is the best instant home stock solution available.

15:27 It actually tastes like chicken.

15:30 It's very simple.

15:30 To make some stock, you just use a teaspoon per cup of water.

15:33 Bring that up to a boil.

15:35 Now, for the vegetables, I have these frozen soup vegetable mix.

15:39 It's definitely more than uh what's

15:41 normally prescribed in chicken noodle [music] soup,

15:43 but again, we're talking zero prep.

15:45 There's not too many options out there.

15:46 There is frozen mirepoix available,

15:48 but so hard to find, I couldn't couldn't find it.

15:51 Now, for the chicken, we have a grocery store rotisserie chicken.

15:54 This way we can get some dark meat in there.

15:55 So, got our rotisserie chicken, which I'm going to shred.

15:58 All right, now to the simmering stock, just enough frozen vegetables.

16:02 Then we really just need to heat this meat through.

16:04 So, uh let's just add it to the pot.

16:07 And of course, we need noodles.

16:09 Going with the cheapest ones I could find,

16:10 light and fluffy medium enriched egg noodles.

16:14 Probably all comes together in about 10 minutes, which is pretty awesome.

16:17 Like, it probably takes 5 minutes to heat up a can of Campbell's soup,

16:20 but let's give it a try.

16:23 That tastes like a perfectly serviceable homemade chicken noodle soup.

16:26 It's about 10 billion times better than anything out of a can.

16:29 The noodles are perfectly cooked, because we cooked them.

16:31 The chicken is tender and moist,

16:33 because it was just cooked [music] as a rotisserie chicken and then heated up,

16:36 so it didn't have the chance to dry out.

16:38 The broth is nice and clean and chickeny [music] tasting,

16:41 and it's been lightly seasoned with the fresh vegetables simmering in it.

16:44 And sure, there's okra and corn in it, but you know,

16:48 for 10 minutes and only store-prepped ingredients that you just

16:52 need to like take [music] apart and put in a pot, it's pretty incredible.

16:56 It's a great way to go.

16:57 Our first homemade one.

16:59 Now, it's time to get even more homemade.

17:02 At what point in the episode will virtually all of our audience

17:05 lose interest in actually making the recipes

17:07 and start watching purely for entertainment?

17:09 Not this one.

17:11 Not the next one.

17:12 The the the one after that.

17:13 The one the next one after the next one.

17:18 [music]

17:18 After that.

17:19 What level we on?

17:20 So, we're going to start by having one large garlic clove,

17:22 rough chopping one large Spanish onion.

17:25 I like to get rid of the skins.

17:26 You can absolutely use them to make stock,

17:28 but I think that they give it kind of a dirty [music] off flavor.

17:31 If you're going to use them,

17:32 make sure you slice off the root section on the bottom.

17:35 That's really going to give a funk.

17:36 Just slicing this into wedges.

17:38 Same deal with some [music] celery.

17:39 I'm saving all the good stocks for the actual soup.

17:42 This is a great opportunity to use the inner stocks as well as the leaves,

17:45 all the stuff that you might normally throw away.

17:47 Carrots, likewise, I'm peeling them.

17:50 I like to peel them, you don't have to.

17:52 You could scrub them.

17:53 I hate scrubbing vegetables.

17:55 Likewise, just a rough chop there.

17:58 [music] Now, I like to add parsnip to not only my chicken stock,

18:00 but to my chicken noodle soup.

18:01 It gives a great root vegetable flavor,

18:03 but also a subtle sweetness that I don't think you get from any other vegetable.

18:07 Then we're going to take a rotisserie chicken and shred that up.

18:10 Then we're bringing them over to the stovetop.

18:11 We're going to dump them all in the stockpot,

18:13 along with our shredded rotisserie chicken.

18:15 I'm also adding a handful of peppercorns, a little bit of fresh parsley,

18:18 [music] and of course, enough water to submerge everything in the pot.

18:21 Then we're going to cover it, bring it to a simmer,

18:23 and then we're going to skim off any scum

18:25 or fat that floats to the top of the stock.

18:27 This isn't going to ruin the flavor or anything,

18:29 but it can make the stock very cloudy.

18:31 Once you get to a nice gentle simmer,

18:32 we're going to partially cover and try to maintain

18:35 a temperature of around 180 to 190° F.

18:38 This is the ideal temperature for gelatin formation and collagen extraction.

18:42 Then we're going to hold it there for 3 to up to 12 hours.

18:45 Then strain through a fine mesh sieve, cool quickly,

18:48 and immediately refrigerate or put it straight to good use in our soup.

18:51 Pretty much the same vegetables getting prepped here.

18:53 I'm doing just a normal dice of an onion, as well as the carrot and celery.

18:57 We want them to all be the same kind of form factor.

19:00 You don't want big hunks [music] of carrot and little bits of onion,

19:03 or big hunks of celery and little bits of carrot.

19:06 [music] Now, we're placing those in a high-walled sauté

19:07 pan and sautéing together for 3 to 5 minutes.

19:10 We're just sweating them.

19:11 This is going to help them break down in the soup and become tender.

19:14 Also build some flavor early on in the process.

19:17 [music] Then we're going to add our chicken stock

19:19 to the vegetables and bring the whole thing up to a simmer.

19:22 As soon as you've got a very bare, very gentle simmer,

19:25 just a few bubbles peeking out in the corners,

19:28 that's when we're going to kill the heat and add our boneless,

19:30 skinless chicken thighs.

19:32 Then we're going to cover this up and let that residual carryover

19:35 heat [music] par cook the vegetables and almost fully cook the chicken.

19:38 You might be asking yourself, what the hell is that?

19:41 Well, that's not chicken noodle soup.

19:42 Well, stick with me.

19:44 We are making a soup optimized for every single individual bowl.

19:48 When you normally make chicken noodle soup,

19:50 the bowls that you serve when you freshly made it are the best.

19:53 The [music] vegetables are cooked perfectly, the noodles are al dente,

19:56 and the chicken is juicy and moist.

19:58 But then you let it cool, you put in the fridge,

19:59 and you reheat it, the vegetables are soft, the chicken's overcooked,

20:02 and you might as well fish out the noodles

20:04 one by one and replace them cuz they're gross.

20:06 We're going to bypass all that by refrigerating the soup at this stage.

20:10 So, when we take it out of the fridge the next day,

20:12 we have perfectly cooked [music] chicken and vegetables just

20:15 cooked enough so that when we add the noodles, they'll finish cooking through.

20:18 So, get that guy into a large saucepan, bring him up to a simmer, [music]

20:21 add some herbs.

20:22 I'm going with fresh parsley and dill, then add your noodles.

20:25 I'm going with some hearty egg noodles.

20:27 Those are going to cook for about 10 minutes until they're done.

20:30 And there you have it,

20:30 chicken noodle soup where every bowl is as good as the last.

20:34 It looks fantastic.

20:35 It's laden with herbs.

20:37 All the vegetables and the chicken are going to be cooked

20:39 perfectly thanks to that sort of par cook and fridge overnight.

20:42 Um and the veg, the carrots are completely soft,

20:47 but they still taste like carrots.

20:48 They don't just taste like the rest of the soup.

20:50 So, they have some of their own personality.

20:52 The stock itself is laden with those really familiar herbs,

20:56 the dill and the parsley.

20:57 It's sweet.

20:59 Uh carrots are naturally sweet,

21:00 but parsnips add a distinct sweetness all their own.

21:04 That's why I add them to all my chicken stocks, [music] always.

21:06 The noodles are cooked perfectly because we're not

21:08 cooking them and then putting them in the fridge [music] for leftovers.

21:11 We're cooking the noodles fresh every serving.

21:14 What you end up with is both the dictionary definition of chicken noodle soup,

21:18 but also something that transcends how good

21:22 you thought chicken noodle soup could be.

21:23 It's functioning at the echelon of every level.

21:26 Each bite is a little different and yet utterly familiar.

21:29 Sure, it's chicken noodle soup, but it makes you take a pause.

21:34 It makes you take a pause.

21:36 What the hell is a matzo ball, and what is it doing in my soup?

21:40 Spoken like a true Tennessean there, Brad.

21:42 I'm from Arkansas.

21:45 Even better.

21:45 A matzo ball is a ball made from matzo.

21:49 Very popular in the Jewish community, put in soup.

21:52 And to make matzo balls, you could get matzo meal,

21:54 but much more readily available is matzo ball soup mix,

21:57 which is just matzo meal with some [music]

22:00 baking soda and some seasonings in it.

22:02 So, it's not like you're going to do any better if you start from scratch.

22:06 Follow the instructions on the package.

22:08 I'm adding two eggs, and I'm going to add some garlic powder,

22:10 onion powder, and some freshly chopped herbs.

22:13 This is going to give it a little bit more of a homemade note.

22:15 [music] This recipe also calls for a quarter cup of oil.

22:18 Mix it all together and let it hydrate.

22:20 It's going to be really gooey to start, and after about 20 minutes,

22:23 it's going to firm up and be a texture that you can roll with wetted hands.

22:27 It's going to stick to your hands unless you dip them in water.

22:29 So, make sure that your hands are wet before you roll each ball.

22:33 [music] I'm rolling them out to the size of um

22:35 like a ping pong ball cuz they're going to roughly

22:37 double in size as they simmer for anywhere

22:39 from 20 to 45 minutes depending on the package instructions.

22:43 Now, in the meantime, I'm taking some of the leftover fresh herbs

22:47 and adding some salt and pepper to them

22:48 just as a little garnish just to drop on top right at the end there.

22:51 Our matzo balls are all puffed up and floating.

22:54 They look delicious.

22:55 We're going to dole them out and sprinkle some of our herb,

22:57 salt, and pepper mixture on top.

22:58 And there you have it, matzo ball soup,

23:01 a simple but extremely effective upgrade.

23:03 All right, let's try this out.

23:05 Ooh, nice, dense.

23:08 I don't know.

23:08 There's something special about about matzo balls.

23:10 Are they better than noodles?

23:11 Yeah, I think so.

23:12 They make the soup eat more like a meal.

23:14 It's almost like you have a main protein.

23:16 They have this wonderful bouncy, slightly chewy,

23:19 but still tender and fluffy texture.

23:22 And they're super easy to make.

23:23 Uh and they just add they lend a whole new level of home madedness to your soup.

23:29 Is this technically chicken noodle soup?

23:31 No.

23:32 But Um What the hell is an avgolemono, and what is it doing in my soup?

23:41 Well, Brad, avgolemono is a Greek soup that's thickened

23:45 with uh egg yolk and brightened with fresh lemon juice.

23:51 And it is one of the very highest expressions of soup.

23:55 Thank you so much for asking.

23:57 You're welcome.

23:58 Thank you.

24:00 You're you're welcome again.

24:04 To make avgolemono, we're basically going to make a chicken soup custard,

24:07 which sounds [music] gross, but it's actually very, very good.

24:10 I'm combining one whole egg plus two

24:12 egg yolks in a medium heatproof bowl [music]

24:15 along with the juice of one to three

24:16 lemons depending on how lemony you want things.

24:19 Beat that together until it's smooth.

24:20 [music] I'm also going to grate in a clove

24:22 of garlic cuz this is a very garlicky soup,

24:24 and it's a fresh, bracing garlic flavor.

24:27 Now, what makes this a custard is that we're

24:28 basically going to treat it like a custard,

24:30 slowly ladling in some of our hot soup into the egg mixture,

24:33 whisking constantly, [music] tempering the eggs so that when

24:36 we add them back in, they don't scramble.

24:38 Those eggs can hang out for a second while

24:40 the soup heads back [music] over to the stovetop.

24:42 We're going to bring it to a simmer and add orzo and herbs.

24:45 Orzo is the pasta of choice for this [music] soup.

24:47 Don't ask me why.

24:48 Once the orzo is fully cooked, be sure to season with salt and pepper,

24:51 and then slowly stream in the egg and lemon mixture while whisking constantly.

24:55 Make sure the heat is on low.

24:57 You want mostly residual heat to cook [music]

24:59 this, but if it's a little too loose,

25:01 if there's a lot of foam on top, hit it with some heat,

25:04 keep it moving, make sure it's not scorching on the bottom.

25:07 It should thicken up ever so slightly, maybe to the texture of half and half.

25:12 And there you have it,

25:12 one of the easiest and undoubtedly greatest upgrades to chicken noodle soup.

25:17 Avgolemono.

25:18 Avgolemono.

25:19 Avgolemono.

25:20 Just use whichever one of [music] those sounds correct.

25:24 This is one of my very favorite expressions of chicken noodle soup.

25:29 The addition of the eggs gives it this velvety,

25:32 hearty character, and the lemon just sets things off.

25:35 Like it's not in the front row, it's one of the background players,

25:37 but it's bringing [music] this beautiful balance to all that added richness.

25:41 And orzo is the best way to get the maximum amount of pasta into your body.

25:44 Almost not recognizable as chicken noodle soup,

25:46 what you would traditionally [music] call

25:48 chicken noodle soup here in the Americas.

25:50 But it is an incredible version of chicken noodle soup,

25:55 an incredible way to quickly and easily upgrade

25:58 your existing or your leftover chicken noodle soup.

26:03 What if I said your chicken noodle soup for the audience is soul?

26:06 Well, to that I would say, well, shucks.

26:10 That's so That's so very nice.

26:11 It's so That's a lovely thing to hear

26:13 that I could be that sort of balm for y'all.

26:17 [music] And then I'd be like, why did I talk like that?

26:21 And then I'd be like, well,

26:21 I just I I I've get uncomfortable when people say nice things

26:24 to me or characterize me in such a a a lovely manner.

26:28 Uh so, I immediately turn stuff into a bit

26:30 to deflect from the emotions that I'm feeling.

26:33 Do you think that the level 10 chicken noodle soup could cure that sickness?

26:38 Well, Brad, there's only one way to find out,

26:40 and that's to make some level 10 chicken noodle soup,

26:42 try it, and see if it fixes my many neuroses.

26:45 [music] So, for level 10, I'm going to take a page out of Chris Young's book.

26:50 He recently did an amazing episode on how to use

26:53 a pressure cooker to make an incredible chicken stock.

26:57 I'm going to follow his advice and very thinly slice

26:59 all my vegetables on a mandoline for maximum flavor extraction.

27:02 The one place I'm going to go a step further is with the chicken.

27:05 I have here a Pennsylvania gold chicken that my friends

27:09 over at Regalis Foods in Brooklyn hooked me up with.

27:12 This is a heritage chicken in the style of those ultra-yellow

27:15 French chickens that are just the best in the world.

27:17 [music] And it better be because this chicken was $44.

27:21 I'm going to start by snipping out its spine.

27:23 I'm going to break down all the dark meat and the bones into small,

27:26 manageable pieces, and I'm going to reserve the breast meat for the actual soup.

27:30 Everything else is going in the pressure cooker.

27:33 Even the skin, which I'm going to render out first

27:35 to get all that awesome chicken skin to sauté my vegetables in.

27:39 I think Chris would be proud.

27:41 Once I've rendered out all the fat, I'm adding the vegetables,

27:43 letting them sweat, letting them pick up a little bit of color,

27:45 [music] and I'm only doing half of them

27:47 or so because we really only need the Maillard.

27:50 You don't need it on every surface.

27:51 It can go on half.

27:53 Add the chicken, add water, cover it up, and pressure cook it for 75 minutes,

27:58 letting the steam release naturally over time.

28:00 You don't want to turn the steam valve cuz that's

28:02 going to mix everything up and [music] cloud the broth.

28:05 So, for the noodles,

28:06 I'm going to make a version of an Italian soup noodle called passatelli.

28:09 This is a kind of pasta that's made from breadcrumbs,

28:11 [music] Parmesan, and eggs that are pressed, and it's named passatelli, through

28:18 [music] a passatelli press or a potato ricer for quick,

28:20 easy noodles that work really, really well in a broth.

28:23 [music] So, I got a nice loaf of Italian bread

28:24 here that I'm going to cut up into 1-in pieces,

28:26 spread out evenly on a rimmed baking [music] sheet,

28:28 and dry in a low oven at 200° F for about 2 hours until they're completely dry.

28:34 [music] Once the bread is completely dried,

28:35 we're going to put it in the jar of a food

28:36 processor and whiz it down into homemade Italian breadcrumbs,

28:40 [music] which I'm going to pass through a fine mesh sieve.

28:43 This is just to make sure that I

28:44 get a fine [music] enough texture on my noodles.

28:47 Normally, this is a very rustic pasta,

28:49 and this one's going to be a little bit more refined, if you will.

28:51 75 minutes later, and dear god, [music] does this stuff smell like chicken.

28:56 And you can see the unbelievable color not [music] only of the broth,

28:59 but of the fat on top.

29:00 It's It's almost orange.

29:02 It's otherworldly.

29:03 Now, I'm not just [music] making broth here.

29:05 For service, I'm going to try to clarify it into a consommé,

29:09 again using a method from Chris Young.

29:11 Normally, making a consommé is a very fussy,

29:13 very French process where you have to liquefy chicken meats and egg whites,

29:18 and you have to cook it all together,

29:19 and it forms this very delicate raft that you have

29:21 to very carefully scoop the the broth out of without breaking it.

29:25 It's time-consuming.

29:25 It's difficult.

29:26 It's pretty wasteful, too.

29:27 Chris developed this incredible technique where

29:29 he just freezes [music] chicken stock

29:32 into ice cubes and then lets those ice cubes melt in a coffee filter.

29:36 And somehow, in doing so,

29:38 it makes a perfectly clear, completely delicious consommé,

29:42 and everything left in the coffee filter is basically a chicken demi.

29:46 Like it's this ultra concentrated, highly gelatinous chicken [music] stuff.

29:51 Hang on to that because it is gold.

29:53 Now for the chicken in the actual chicken and noodle soup,

29:56 I'm going to sous vide the chicken breasts.

29:58 [music] I want to do this because white meat

30:00 chicken is usually the go-to in chicken noodle soup.

30:03 I prefer dark meat, but I wanted to see if I could

30:05 make a white meat chicken noodle soup that isn't dry and papery.

30:08 So, I'm vacuum sealing together these chicken breasts and I'm sous viding

30:12 it at 140° F for anywhere from 1 to 1 and 1/2 hours.

30:16 Now to make the actual noodle though,

30:18 I'm going to combine equal parts breadcrumbs and semolina flour,

30:22 followed with a pinch of salt,

30:23 and about 100 g of freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano.

30:26 So, it's a ratio of 2 to 2 to 1.

30:29 Mix all that together and then we're going to sort of make this grandma style.

30:32 I'm going to make a well in the center

30:33 of the dry ingredients, beat them together, slowly incorporate the dry stuff,

30:37 and what I'm looking for here is a dry, sandy dough.

30:39 We want it dry because it's going to go through a pasta extruder.

30:42 So, it's got to be a little drier than you think it should be.

30:45 [music] And this is actually pretty sticky,

30:46 so I'm going to keep adding flour until I get to a short,

30:49 almost crumbly consistency.

30:51 Now this stuff is getting extruded onto a bed of semolina flour.

30:55 At first I couldn't really figure out what shape I wanted to go for.

30:58 Was it short little rounds or was it longer kind of noodles?

31:01 And eventually I made a bunch of different sizes,

31:03 but this stuff came out really interesting.

31:06 It's tender but toothsome and it has an amazing flavor to it.

31:10 Now I'm going for a suitably fru-fru presentation,

31:13 so I'm going to very carefully [music] dice my vegetables

31:17 so they're all exactly the same size, well roughly.

31:20 I've got carrot, celery, parsnip,

31:22 and turnip that I'm cutting into probably [music] 1/4 in cubes.

31:26 These guys are getting blanched for anywhere from 1 to 3 minutes until they

31:29 just start to get soft and then they're getting shocked in an ice bath.

31:32 This is going to give us vegetables

31:34 that are fully cooked but taste only like themselves.

31:36 So, every bite is going to be bursting with fresh vegetable flavor.

31:40 Now for a decisive finishing move, I'm making an infused chicken schmaltz.

31:45 Putting about a cup of the schmaltz in a fry

31:47 pan and then I'm borrowing flavors from pho.

31:50 [music] I'm adding some Vietnamese cinnamon,

31:52 one star anise pod, some saffron just to be fancy,

31:55 a couple whole cloves, maybe just one whole clove,

31:57 a few green cardamom pods, and some whole coriander seed.

32:00 Bring this up to a bare simmer and we're just going to let it cook

32:03 and infuse with those flavors no more than 5 minutes over very, very low heat.

32:07 This stuff tastes [music] unreal, like otherworldly good,

32:12 but also add a little bit of sesame oil to give

32:14 it some richness and some diversity [music] in its flavor.

32:17 After a couple hours, I have a perfectly clear,

32:20 beautiful chicken consommé and some goo.

32:23 And what I'm doing here is I'm just putting it in a nonstick pan,

32:25 not to cook it, but to chill [music] it.

32:27 I'm spreading it out into an even layer and this guy's headed

32:30 into the fridge so I can cut out little shapes of chicken demi.

32:35 Triangles and squares.

32:36 Isn't that [music] fun?

32:37 Now the broth tastes beautifully of chicken,

32:40 but just chicken and the aromatics that went into it.

32:42 So, I'm going to infuse it many fancy Michelin

32:47 star restaurants do and pour it tableside, if you will.

32:50 I'm adding three roughly chopped chives,

32:52 a big old lemon peel, couple hunks of fresh lemongrass,

32:56 little bit of fresh parsley, some fresh chervil, and some fresh ginger.

33:02 I'm also going to add a couple white peppercorns.

33:04 This is apparently an essential to add to our chicken

33:07 consommé and bring it up to a boil, then just let it steep.

33:11 [music] Meanwhile, our chicken breast is ready to come out of the bath.

33:13 It's a little bit undercooked.

33:15 140 is a very challenging texture,

33:17 but the hot soup being added will bring it the rest of the way.

33:20 Now it's time to assemble.

33:21 I'm starting with these little [music] gelatinous cutouts of our chicken demi,

33:26 around which I'm going to arrange our vegetables

33:28 [music] and some chicken cubes as well, cut to the same size.

33:32 Each of those chicken cubes is getting a little bit of fresh dill on top.

33:35 Now everything's pretty much ready to come together here,

33:37 so I'm going to cook our pasta for about 45 seconds.

33:40 That's all it takes.

33:41 Drain it, toss it with a little bit of butter,

33:43 then I'm going to start arranging those around the plate as well,

33:45 using tweezers, of course.

33:46 And normally you'd do this in a French press, but I don't have one,

33:49 so I'm just straining out the chicken

33:51 consommé and very carefully pouring it over top,

33:54 trying not to disturb all of its delicate counterparts.

33:57 Then I'm drizzling that infused chicken schmaltz right over top.

34:01 Little bit of flaky finishing salt and I've got some

34:03 freshly ground pepper I'm going to very carefully sprinkle over top.

34:06 And there you have it, folks.

34:07 What I very well imagine level 10 chicken noodle soup is like.

34:12 Let's see if it's [snorts] tastes better than it looks.

34:16 That is intense, man.

34:18 That [snorts] is crazy.

34:20 Oh, that oil is really unique.

34:21 It brings all these nice warming spices that you're kind of used to with pho.

34:25 Um but it's it's in a chicken noodle soup context.

34:28 And pho is a kind of chicken noodle soup, if you ask me.

34:30 Each [music] vegetable tastes like itself.

34:33 The carrots taste like carrots, turnips taste like turnips, celery like celery.

34:37 They all have a nice firmness to them, but they're very, very soft.

34:41 Parsnips, of course, bring in a lovely sweetness.

34:43 Some fresh dill on top to light things off and the chicken is so very tender.

34:49 And this broth, shut up.

34:52 It's delicious.

34:52 Is it worth the 2 days of work?

34:54 No.

34:54 You can say that about most fine dining.

34:56 That's why you go out to restaurants and let those [music] guys do it.

34:58 But some of the flavors here I'm definitely hanging on to.

35:02 Infused schmaltz and that pastina, I'm going to try to find every single way

35:06 I can to incorporate Parmesan and nutmeg into pasta.

35:11 Gosh darn it, that's good.

35:13 If [music] I were sick, I'd be healthy now.

35:16 But I'm healthy, so now I'm a super basically a better person.

35:20 That's chicken noodle soup for the soul.

35:21 Forget the Bible.

35:23 This is found it.

35:25 So, what do we learn here today apart from some fun tips and tricks

35:28 to incorporate in your chicken noodle soup

35:30 or some fun new recipes to try, right?

35:35 I guess that's it.

35:37 Other than the fact that chicken noodle soup is indeed a salve,

35:41 is indeed something that raises your spirits,

35:45 makes you feel a little bit better when you're feeling down.

35:47 It did for me just [music] last week.

35:49 I'm Don't know if you can hear it, but I'm still gunked up.

35:51 I'm still not doing well and I made

35:53 some chicken noodle soup and [music] here I am.

35:56 I should be dead.

35:58 But here I am talking to you about it.

36:00 So, do your own research.

36:05 Trust no one.

36:06 And make some chicken noodle soup and do it with Babish.

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