The One-Pot Meal That Made Me Famous

Congratulations. You've officially made

it to soup season. And as a certified

soup lover, I feel that it is my duty to

pass down one of the greatests of all

time.

Don't look at me when I do this.

[clears throat] Now, creamy chicken soup

is not only one of my most popular

recipes, it also happens to be my wife's

favorite, which means I make it a lot.

But that also means that over time, I

found ways to make it even better. So,

stick around if you like soup. To start,

we're going to be making our from

scratch, which you don't technically

have to do. There is nothing wrong with

using a pre-made packaged. They're

great. They work well. But for something

like this where it already doesn't take

a ton of time to make the soup, why not

put a little bit more effort in and make

your noki from scratch? So, if you're

going to join me and make youroki from

scratch, the first thing you're going to

need is about a pound of potatoes.

Specifically, Yukon Gold potatoes. And

you really have two ways to cook them.

Technically, there's a third way, but

that third way is boiling them. And if

you boil them, you're adding extra

moisture into your potatoes and then

sometimes it can mess with the texture

of your which I'm assuming you also

don't want. So for the two methods, you

have the first, which is baking. Throw

them in the oven 375 for about 45 to 60

minutes, depending on how big your

potatoes are, and they're cooked. But

the second option that you have is to

just take your potatoes, place them on a

microwave safe plate, cover them with a

nice damp towel, and throw them in your

microwave for 5 minutes at a time,

rotating them around until they're

cooked all the way through. usually like

10 to 15 minutes depending on how big

your potatoes are. I don't see anything

wrong with either method. The only

difference is if you're going to do it

in the oven, it's going to take you

longer. But if you do it in the

microwave, you have to be a little more

hands-on. So, up to you. Now, once your

potatoes are cooked, you're taking the

same steps. Your cooked potato inside a

ricer or you can peel it and throw it

onto a fine me strainer or a sie and

then just scrape it through. But you're

just going to want to push it through

your ricer and get it all nice and

mashed. This is one of the reasons I

really like using a ricer because you

don't have to peel your potato before

you throw it into it. It just like

squeezes around it. And then you can

just take your peel out afterwards.

And I like to also make sure that I'm

grabbing any of the potato that's

squeezed out the sides and made its way

to the top because that's still good

potato that we want to make sure we rice

out. Then we're just going to scrape off

the bottom. Make sure we get all of our

potato. And then we'll just kind of fold

it all together into a nice little mash.

Make sure I didn't miss any clumps and

it's all fully cooked and nice and soft.

And now into this we're going to add two

egg yolks. Just the yolks, not the

whites. You could alternatively just use

one full egg with the white instead of

just using two egg yolks. Again, words

are hard, but it's not going to be as

creamy and it's not going to be as rich.

And so, it's trade-off. But it is a

little bit easier to work with if you're

just using one full egg. We're just

going to mash that in a bit just to kind

of get it spread out.

And now I've got about a cup of flour

that I'm going to run through this sieve

because I want to make sure I get out

any clumps so it's nice and smooth and

buttery. And once it starts to form into

a nice shaggy dough, it's probably best

to just move on to using your hands

because it's going to be a lot easier.

And then just continue to press and fold

it together until it's nice and smooth.

This will definitely take a little bit

of time. And if your dough is not coming

together and you feel like it's too dry,

just keep working it a little bit

because the worst thing you can do is

add more liquid to this. but when you

don't need it. As you can tell, mine was

looking pretty dry, but now it's

actually a little bit on the wet side.

And I'm just going to add in a little

bit more of my flour. This is 100% a

game of patience and trusting yourself.

It's going to come together. And

eventually, after you've worked in all

of your flour, you're going to end up

with a nice smooth ball like this. And

you'll know it's good when you press on

it and it bounces back. Now, you're just

going to go ahead and split that in half

and sprinkle down a little bit of flour.

Then, we're just going to roll each

piece of dough into about a/2 in thick

log. And it helps if you start your roll

in the center. and then push that dough

out to help spread it out. And even more

so, if your dough is getting too long,

just split it in half. And then once we

have a thickness that we like all the

way across, we're just going to chop our

pieces [music]

relatively evenly. Now, once you have

all these nice little pillows, you're

just going to dust it with a little bit

of flour just to make sure that they

don't stick to each other like this.

This is why you should have dusted it a

little bit earlier, but I was just

trying to get through all of it, trying

to rush through. And now look, I made

more work for myself. Shame on me. And

now once you have all these beautiful

littleki pillows, you have two you have

two options. You can just leave them

[music] like this, which is totally

fine. They're beautiful and everybody

loves them. Or if you don't have one of

those boards, you can take a fork, place

down your give it a little thumb

pressure, and just roll it. That'll give

you a relatively similar result without

having to buy the thing. But I'm going

to be honest, for something like this,

going through and and trying to roll all

of these singular pieces of, it's not

worth it. So, I'm just going to do those

three, and they're going to be my

special three that when I find later in

my soup, I'm going to be stoked about.

And in the meantime, I'm just going to

move all of these over to a sheet tray

until we're ready to cook. And leaving

these on the counter top is okay. You

just want to make sure you cover it with

a damp towel so that way it doesn't get

all dried out. And now for the chicken

part of our creamy chicken soup, chicken

thighs. Now, in the past, I used chicken

breast because it's sitting in a soup,

so it's not exactly going to dry out.

But even though it technically speaking,

it's not going to dry [music] out the

same way, it's still not going to have

the best mouth feel. So that's why I

started using chicken thighs. Now, these

are boneless and skinless, but of

course, there is still a little bit of

fat on these that I just want to trim

off because again, it doesn't contribute

to the mouth feel when you're chewing on

a piece of chicken fat. It is also a

really good time to inspect the

underside for any bone fragments that

may have been left behind because, well,

yes, these are boneless, skinless,

things happen, and the last thing you

want to do is chip [music] a tooth on a

piece of chicken bone. Now, once you

have these all nicely trimmed and laid

out, you just want to hit them with a

little drizzle of olive oil. This is

just going to help our seasoning bind to

our chicken. Make sure we get every nook

and cranny because we don't want there

to be any bare spots. And now to season

our chicken. I'm going to be honest with

you, it's up to you. It really is like

this is a perfect time for you to be

like, "Hey, let me try something

different. Let me try something new." As

long as the flavors of your chicken go

along with the flavors of the soup,

which is pretty broad really, you're

going to be okay. But if you really do

want measurements, then here we go.

Roughly 3 tablespoons of garlic powder,

2 tbsp of onion powder. I don't know why

I haven't punched the holes in this

thing any bigger because every time I do

this, it just makes a cloud of onion

powder smoke and I breathe it in and it

hurts. About a tablespoon of paprika.

That's a little bit more, but again,

that's okay. And about a tablespoon of

dried oregano. And of course, salt and

pepper. I refuse to take this glove off

because I'm going to have to rub this

into the chicken as in a second.

Cool. That's a lot more pepper than I

thought it was. It's okay. It's going to

work. Now, you could also just use a

spice rub that you like. This is a great

time to use one of those. save you some

time, save you some energy, but again,

it's really all just personal

preference. Just as long as your chicken

is completely covered in seasoning,

you're good. And now for the last little

bit of prep before we actually cook

everything. We're going to start off by

finally dicing one shallot. Uh in my

case, I have this extremely large uh

double shallot. You don't need that,

just the one. And now, I just want this

to be a nice fine dice. So, I'm just

going to slide my knife through the

sides. And then, I'm going to go

straight down, holding it together as

best I can, and then rotate. And then

dice accordingly.

I know there's a better way to chop

shallots. Uh I just refuse to do it. But

anyways, you just move that to the side.

And we are going to crush and roughly

chop some garlic. Six pieces to be

exact. Don't forget to strip these bad

boys down because you don't want to be

munching on garlic skin.

And you don't want to cut this down into

a paste, but you do want it to be fairly

small because you want it to blend into

the soup. Something like this is

perfect. And now for the last bit of

prep, we have sundried tomatoes. My

finger strength took off a little bit of

the label and I I thought it was mold.

It's [music] not mold. It's it's just

the label. Now, you want about a four

cup of sun-dried tomatoes, but honestly,

like it's personal [music] preference.

This is one of those things where like

my wife loves sun-dried tomatoes, so I

honestly probably could get away with

more sun-dried tomatoes, but I think

right around a four cup is a nice

balance for this. But I'm also not going

to judge you if you use more. I'm not

that kind of guy. And for this, we just

want to cut it into [music] nice short

small pieces. You don't want it minced,

but you also don't want long stringy

pieces of sundried tomato. So, if you

get the ones that are in the jar that

are already juliened, great. But you're

still probably going to want to cut

those up at least a little bit. And that

is all of it. And now to cook all of

this, I'm going to be using a very large

Dutch oven. How large, you might be

wondering. Well, I'm not sure right now,

but hey, thank you, future me. Now, the

first thing we're going to be cooking is

our chicken. So, we're going to want to

bring this up to a medium high heat so

we can saute it. And now that our pot

has sat for about 10 minutes and is

adequately preheated, Italian food loop

or olive oil. Then, we're just going to

carefully lay down our chicken thighs,

making sure that they don't overlap. And

if [music] your pot is not wide enough

to do all of your chicken thighs at one

point, that's totally okay. Just go

ahead and do it in batches. Better for

it to take a little bit longer than for

you to overcrowd your pot. The important

thing here is that you're using the same

pot you're going to cook your soup in,

cuz that way all the flavor cooks

together. And then after about 2 minutes

on that first side, you're going to go

ahead and flip each piece over and then

let it sear again on the other side.

And then after another 2 minutes, you're

going to go ahead and flip again. And

you're just going to do this two to

three times until your chicken is fully

cooked. And now that our chicken is

cooked right about 155, I'm just going

to go ahead and remove it. Let this all

rest. Now, technically speaking, chicken

is supposed to be cooked to 165, but at

155, it's still hot. It's still cooking

right now. So, it's going to get up to

165, but do what you're comfortable

with. Now, in this same pot, we're going

to turn our heat down to medium low. And

as long as you still have a solid amount

of oil left in your pot, you don't have

to add anymore. But what you do want to

add is your shallots, garlic, and

sun-dried tomatoes. And you're just

going to want to keep this moving all

around your pot. That way nothing burns

and it just becomes nice and fragrant.

And after about 3 minutes or once it all

starts to cook down and those shallots

become translucent, you're going to want

to add your tomato paste. Right about a

tablespoon and a half of tomato paste,

followed by 2 tbsps of garlic powder, a

tablespoon of paprika, a tablespoon of

dried oregano, and a tablespoon of red

chili flakes or again your preferred

spice blend. Then we're just going to

mix all that together so that way our

tomato paste is nice and toasted as well

as all of our spices. And once that raw

tomato paste smell is cooked all the way

down, we're going to add in six cups of

highquality chicken broth. Now, you want

to use something that's high quality

because in something like this or the

chicken broth really is a big component,

right? So, if you cheap out on your

chicken broth and you get something that

isn't super flavorful or is kind of just

weak all around, then you're going to

end up tasting it in the end or not

tasting it. So, this is definitely one

of those times where I would recommend

you either make your chicken stock from

scratch or you spend a little bit more

and get something that's a little bit

nicer. But, I totally get this stuff is

not necessarily super affordable. So, if

you want to, you can always use a

cheaper stock and try to fortify it

yourself. It's just a little bit more

work. Now, from here, we're going to

want to go ahead and bring this up to a

nice simmer while we stir and

incorporate everything together. It's

also an important time to scrape the

bottom of your pan because all that

flavor from when we cooked our chicken

is cooked onto the bottom in that

beautiful fawn that you don't want to

miss out on. And now that we have this

going at a nice simmer, we're going to

let this ride for about 15 minutes

without a lid on because if we put a lid

on it, it's going to trap all the

moisture in there. What we want is for

some of that water to evaporate so that

way our soup gets nice and condensed

with all that flavor. Now, after that 15

minutes, you're going to want to go

ahead and add in your heavy cream. We're

going to carefully pour in about 4 cups

of heavy cream and stir that in nice and

slow. You're also going to want to grate

in about 2 cups or about 175 g of fresh

pano reano. Please do not use that

pre-grated crumbly stuff in a can. It's

not what you want for this. It's not

going to be good. Save that for your

pizza or even like just don't use that

at all. And then just make sure you've

stirred in all that cheese until it's

nice and melted. Now, we're just going

to want to bring this back up to a light

simmer. Again, we want to leave this

uncovered because we want it to thicken

up. This time we're going to want to

make sure we're stirring at least every

minute to two minutes so that way

nothing burns to the bottom.

And you know at this point you're

probably wondering why I use such a

large pot even though my soup barely

gets up to halfway. Well, let me tell

you why. Because I make this soup enough

to know if you don't have enough space

between the top of your soup and the top

of your pot, you're going to end up with

most of your soup all over your

countertop every time you stir it. It's

just the way it is. So, to me, it only

makes sense to use a larger pot, so that

way you have a higher sidewall here to

protect from spillage. And now that this

has been simmering for about 30 minutes,

you can see our soup is really starting

to thicken up. It's not too thick like

it would be in a sauce, but it has

thickened up enough to give us that nice

creamy texture in our soup. At this

point, we can go ahead and turn our heat

down to medium low because we just want

to basically keep it warm at this point.

And we're going to taste and adjust for

our salt. Because while we did add all

those flavorings and seasoning from

before, we didn't add any salt because

at that point, we still wanted to cook

down our soup. So, if we would have

salted it then, it would have been

great. But then as it cooked down and

some of that water evaporated, we would

have ended up with something that was a

little too salty.

Obviously needs salt.

Better, but still more salt. And this

might be more or less for you. It really

depends on your personal preference on

how much salt you want in your soup. Not

necessarily how much salt you want in

your soup from a sodium intake

standpoint, but what tastes good. So,

you'll just have to taste it and adjust

to your liking, which is great because

then you're going to learn that taste.

You're going to learn that adjustment,

that specificity, and you're going to

apply that to everything you cook. And

now, this is a great point to cut up our

chicken and add it back into our soup.

Now, this chicken has just been sitting

here waiting and resting while we cook

everything else. So, it's retained as

much of the juice as possible, and it's

cooked itself all the way through. And

then once that's all nice and cubed up,

we can go ahead and just carefully add

that into our soup. Remember, the soup

is hot and will splash and hurt, so

please be careful. And now for the last

thing that we need to cook ankoki. But

remember, if you're using the pre-made,

you can just add this straight in and

let it sit until it's cooked through.

But because we're using freshoki, it's

got a little extra flour on it. We want

to make sure we cook [music] that off

separately. The reason we want to boil

it separately for the freshoki is

because there's a lot more flour on it,

and we don't want that to thicken up our

soup and get all gunky in there. So,

we're going to set this pot to boil.

Obviously, a very heavy pinch of salt

and some boiling water, followed by our

pillowy goodness.

And one of the nice things of making

freshoki is that it really doesn't take

very long to cook. 2 to 3 minutes tops.

And once it's floating to the top, you

know it's done. And then we'll just fold

all this in together. And to finish it

all off, we have a nice handful of some

ready to party washed spinach. Remember,

spinach cooks down really easily and

it's going to shrink. So even though

this looks like a lot, it's not going to

be a lot in a few minutes. We're also

going to tear in a little bit of fresh

Italian parsley. Roughly four to five

stems worth. And if you have it, fresh

basil is really nice as well. You don't

need to cut it up. You just pluck it off

of your plant. Hopefully, you have a

plant. And then you can just layer it

all up and give it a few nice tears. And

all you need to do from here is just

stir it all together.

Thank you so much for watching. I really

hope that you enjoyed it. I really hope

that you learned something. Here's a

photo of me at the park. And I'll see

you next