Chicken Noodle Soup

Dinner | Chinese

Prep time: 10 min Cook time: 1 min Servings: 2

This one’s warm, nutty, and a smart way to use up a chicken frame - nothing wasted. It’s a rich, brothy noodle soup with a hit of spice and plenty of bite from fresh ginger, garlic, and chilli.

We're making a spicy peanut chicken noodle soup based on a small-batch chicken stock made from a chicken frame and wings. The frame cooks in two stages: a 25-minute simmer to cook the meat so it can be picked off the bones, then the bones go back in for another 30 minutes to extract as much collagen and flavour as possible. The resulting stock goes straight into the soup base, which is built in the same pan with shallots, garlic, ginger, and chilli, then added with peanut butter and seasoned with fish sauce, lime, and soy. It’s rich, warming, and has a gentle heat that builds through the bowl.

This is a good recipe for using up a chicken frame if you break down whole chickens at home, turning a by-product into a proper meal and wasting nothing. The soup scales easily for more people, and the stock and picked chicken can be made ahead and refrigerated until you’re ready to finish the dish. Total time is around 70 minutes but most of that is hands-off simmer time.

Ingredient Notes

Chicken frame: A chicken frame is the carcass left after a whole chicken has been broken down: the backbone and rib bones with any remaining meat attached. It makes an excellent quick stock as the bones and cartilage release collagen during the simmer, giving the broth body. Ask your butcher for frames, or save them when breaking down whole chickens at home. If unavailable, 400-500g of chicken wings alone work well as a substitute, or use a good quality store-bought chicken stock and skip Step 1, reducing the total cook time significantly.

Peanut butter: Natural peanut butter (made from only peanuts, with no added sugar or hydrogenated oil) works best here as it has a more intense, roasted peanut flavour and blends smoothly into the broth without making the soup overly sweet. If using a commercial peanut butter with added sugar, reduce the caster sugar in the recipe or omit it entirely and adjust to taste. I used smooth peanut butter but you can also use crunchy.

Fish sauce: Fish sauce provides the salty, umami depth that balances the richness of the peanut butter. The recipe calls for 3 tsp to taste: start with 2 tsp, then add more at the end once the soup has reduced and the flavours have concentrated. Different brands vary significantly in saltiness. If fish sauce is unavailable or you need a vegetarian version, soy sauce is a reasonable substitute, though it lacks the same depth. For a gluten free result, check the soy sauce label and use tamari if needed.

Equipment

Large saucepan or saucier (for stock and soup)
Fine sieve or strainer
Large jug or bowl (to strain stock into)
Separate pot (for blanching noodles and greens)
Chopping board and chef’s knife
Serving bowls

Ingredients

1 chicken frame with wings
1L water
1 tbsp neutral flavoured oil (I use peanut)
2 shallots, finely diced
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
4cm knob ginger, finely grated
1 long red chilli, finely chopped (with seeds)
¼ cup peanut butter
3 tsp fish sauce to taste,
1 tsp caster sugar
juice of 1 lime
1 tsp soy sauce
220g fresh egg noodles
1 bunch baby buk choy
finely sliced spring onions
chilli crisp

Directions

Prep the stock
Place the chicken frame and wings in a large saucepan and cover with just enough water to submerge.
Place over a high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 25 minutes.
Remove the chicken bones from the saucepan and set aside until cool enough to handle (around 6 minutes).
Pick cooked chicken meat from the frame and wings and set aside in a bowl.
Return the bones to the saucepan and return to a boil. Cook over medium heat for a further 30 minutes.
Strain chicken stock through a fine sieve into a large jug (you should have 800mls). Discard bones.
Cook the soup base
Heat oil in a large saucepan (or saucier) over medium heat.
Saute the shallots with a pinch of salt for 1 minute, until softened. Add garlic, ginger and chilli, cook for a further 45 seconds to a minute. If the pan is starting to brown, you can use a little bit of your chicken stock to deglaze it.
Add peanut butter and stir to combine well and add a ladle of the stock to help melt. Stir in the fish sauce and sugar, then slowly pour in stock, stirring to blend well.
Bring to a simmer, cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Stir through chicken meat to warm through, then lime juice and soy sauce. Keep on a low heat to keep warm.
Finish and serve
Bring a pot of water to a boil.
Blanch noodles in a large saucepan of salted boiling water for 2 minutes, or according to packet directions. Remove from the water and divide between serving bowls. Add the bok choi white to the water and blanch for 30 seconds, and then add the greens and blanch for another 30 seconds and then drain.
Pour the hot stock mixture over the noodles, then the bok choi. Top with spring onions and chilli crisp (optional).

Recipe notes

Chef Tips

Don't skip the second boil of the bones

After picking the chicken meat off in Step 1, the bones go back in for a further 30 minutes at a rolling simmer. This second cook extracts more collagen and deepens the flavour of the stock considerably. The difference between a one-pass and two-pass stock is noticeable in the body and richness of the final soup. If we didn’t pull the meat off before this cook, the chicken would overcook.

Balance the peanut butter with acid and salt

Peanut butter makes the soup rich and thick, but it can tip the balance toward heavy or sweet without enough acidity and salt to cut through. The fish sauce and lime juice are both essential for this: taste the soup after adding the lime and fish sauce in Step 2 and adjust. If it tastes flat or too rich, add more lime juice. If it tastes too sweet (from the peanut butter), add a little more fish sauce or a small pinch of salt.

Storage

The soup base and stock can be stored together in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. The stock on its own can be frozen for up to 3 months. Cook the noodles fresh when serving rather than storing them in the soup, as they will absorb the liquid and become soft. Reheat the soup gently on the stove over low-medium heat, adding a splash of water if it has thickened too much.

FAQs

Can I use something other than a chicken frame? Yes. Chicken wings work well as a substitute and are easier to find: use 400-500g and follow the same process. Alternatively, skip Step 1 entirely and use 800ml of a good quality store-bought chicken stock with 150g of cooked, shredded chicken added in Step 2. This reduces the total cook time to around 20 minutes.

Can I make the stock ahead of time? Yes, and this is a good way to break the recipe into stages. Make the stock and pick the chicken meat in Step 1, then refrigerate both separately for up to 2 days. When ready to serve, start from Step 2 using the cold stock straight from the fridge. The chilled stock will have a layer of solidified fat on top which can be skimmed off before reheating if you prefer.

Can I make this gluten free? Yes. Replace the fresh egg noodles with rice noodles and substitute the soy sauce with tamari. Check the fish sauce label as most are naturally gluten free, but some brands add wheat. The rest of the ingredients are naturally gluten free.