Chicken - Dissected

This has nothing to do with the H1N1 virus, I assure you. I'm fairly confident it has nothing to do with my hypochondria either. I either have a leftover of my allergies, or I'm getting a cold. Just to be safe, I am taking my vitamins and eating chicken noodle soup.

The chicken was a completely unnecessary purchase, I admit. I already went back out to the goat farm to get another kilo of baby goat (don't ask me when I plan on eating it - the main thing is that the baby goats will grow up soon so they must stock my freezer now), as well as shrimp, lamb and escargot, ready whenever I am. I do not need chicken. I do not have room for chicken. But I want chicken, and this is the important thing.

At the local supermarket, I planned on buying about 1 pound of meat, making a soup out of half of it and putting the other half in the freezer. The problem with my plan is, if you wait until 15 minutes before the supermarket closes, they often do not have the fresh items you want. The veggie selection looked picked over and the fruit all looked sad. The only chicken I could find was either premarinated & ready to grill (don't ask me what they marinate it in, I don't want to think about it), and whole chickens.

Full of hypochondria, I selected the whole chicken and make my way back home. I imagined that one could cut the bird into breasts, legs, wings & rest. Somehow, thanks to my amazing Zwilling knives and in spite of my skills, I managed to separate the bird into exactly these parts.

Spicy Chicken Noodle Soup
For the soup, I used the wings & "rest" (back) of chicken.
I heated these parts in a large pot until the fat melted.
I added garlic, ginger, lemongrass, chillies and galagant (all minced), sautéing the spices.
I added about 2 litres of water, 2 lime leaves, put the lid on & walked away for an hour or so.
I took the chicken out of the broth, let it cool for a bit, pulled off them meat, added it back to the soup, discarding the bones.
While cooking 100g of mie noodles, I then added about 1 cup of coconut milk and a bit of fish sauce to the soup.
I then added the noodles, the juice of 1/2 lemon & served with cilantro & bean sprouts.

It's been a while since I've been stuffed on soup. I love light Asian broths that have you slurping and splashing and constantly refilling your bowl. I feel a lot better, less coughing, no stuffy sinuses. The only thing is, I have to figure out what to do with the rest of the chicken.