Gluten-free Chicken Noodle Soup

It’s winter here and it’s time to think about warming comfort lunches. There’s nothing worse than soggy sandwiches on a cold day, and nothing better than a warming thermos of soup.

I’m a big fan of chicken noodle soup, so it was only a matter of time before I got around to blogging my own recipe. Also, I’ve needed a quick post for this week as I hurt my back a couple of weeks ago and haven’t been able to stand in the kitchen for very long, which has severely limited my time for inventing. That’s what you get for being virtuous and going to the gym!

You can tell from the photo that I haven’t had time for anything – it’s pretty ordinary, but then again soup is a tricky thing to photograph. Best left to the professionals!

My favourite way of preparing the chicken is to put chicken breasts in the slow cooker, cover with water, and then let them cook on low for six hours or so. They shred like a dream, and you can cook extra to have some top quality cold meat on hand. But if you don’t have time for that, I’ve given you a quick method for poaching the chicken.

Once your chicken’s cooked, the rest is easy to put together. My kids love this soup – it’s great for a quick, light meal and easy to put the leftovers into a thermos for the next day’s lunch.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 lean chicken breast fillet

300 g fresh or frozen corn kernels

80 g Pad Thai rice noodles

1 litre good quality gluten-free chicken stock

1 tsp gluten-free Chinese five spice

Salt and pepper to taste

2 tbs greens of sliced sping onions, to garnish (optional)

Method

Halve the chicken breast through the middle, as if to butterfly, but cut it into two separate pieces. Put pieces into a small saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil over high heat and allow to boil for 10 minutes.

When chicken is cooked, remove from water and set aside to cool a little. Discard the water. Shred chicken with a fork.

In the meantime, put corn kernels into a microwave safe bowl and cover with boiling water. Cover bowl with a plate or plastic film and microwave on high for 3 minutes. Drain well and purée.

In a large bowl, soak noodles in boiling water for 5 minutes. Drain thoroughly and roughly snip noodles with kitchen scissors.

Put chicken stock into a medium sized saucepan and bring to boil over high heat. Add chicken, corn, noodles, Chinese five spice and salt and pepper to taste. Stir until all ingredients are warmed through.

Serve immediately, garnished with spring onion.

Makes 6 small serves.