There has been a ton of interest for this recipe, and with good reason; it’s a great show and a good recipe. If you’ve landed here from a web-search, please, enjoy the recipe. Please also check out my books. You can read excerpts here, or find the books in the banner to the right and on my Author Page at Amazon.
Now, to the recipe:
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The other day I happened across an episode of “The Mind of a Chef.” (How did I miss this show before?) In this episode (“Simplicity”), host and chef David Chang finds places where the chefs have pared everything back to its most simplistic.
While the episode was great, at one point Chang frustrated me entirely. He gives instructions on how to make a simple chicken noodle soup, but blasts through the process with no detail. Example: at one point he instructs us to “boil the shit out of [the broth].” Not very helpful.
But, always on the lookout for good recipes, I spent some time this weekend reconstructing (or deconstructing) Chang’s method from the brief clip. One innovation is to cook the chicken and vegetables separately. A common problem with chicken broth is that the vegetables can overpower the chicken, but by separating the two, Chang makes it possible for us to adjust the mixture according to personal preference and to account for, say, a particularly strong onion or exceptionally sweet carrot.
The result was, in all humbleness, nothing short of excellent.
Chicken Noodle Soup a la David Chang
6 servings
Hardware
- One 8 qt stock pot
- One 4 qt stock pot
Software
- 6 quarts water (divided)
- 1 whole chicken
- 2 white onions
- 2-3 scallions
- 2 shallots
- 1 carrot
- 3-4 cloves garlic
- Salt
- Freshly ground pepper
- Soy sauce
- Sesame Oil
- Noodles of your choice (udon, fettuccine, egg, etc.)
- Garnishes of your choice (chopped scallions, hard-cooked egg, bamboo shoots, sliced mushrooms, etc.)
Procedure
Prepare the ingredients
- Fill each pot halfway (4 qts water in 8 qt pot, 2 qts water in 4 qt pot). Put them on stove over a med-high heat.
- Disjoint the chicken and salt it liberally, working the salt into the meat.
- Put the chicken pieces (including the giblets) into the large pot of heating water.
- Coarsely grind some fresh black pepper into the pot (6-8 grinds)
- Peel and cut the onions and shallots in half.
- Cut the scallions and carrot into 4-inch lengths.
- Put onions, shallots, scallions, carrot, and garlic into the smaller pot of heating water.
Cook the broths
- Bring both pots to a simmer and turn down the heat. Let them simmer for one hour.
- After one hour, pull the chicken breasts, legs, and thighs from the pot. Let them cool; pick the meat off the bones and reserve. Return the bones, skin, and gristle to the large pot.
- Bring both pots to a slow, gentle boil and let them cook for two hours, uncovered. (This is the “cook the shit” out of them portion.)
- After two hours, the volume should have been reduced to about half.
- Strain the vegetable broth, discard the veg, and return the broth to the smaller pot.
- Strain the chicken broth, discard the bones, skin, etc. De-fat the broth and return the broth to the larger pot.
Plating
For each serving, prepare a bowl as follows:
- Break the chicken meat into bite-sized pieces and put a serving in the bottom of the bowl.
- Add 2 tbsp of soy sauce (see Notes, below).
- Add 1/2 tsp of sesame oil
- Add some of the garnish elements (chopped scallions and sliced mushrooms are good here)
Final assembly
- Bring the chicken broth to a boil and cook your noodles in the broth, according to specifications for your choice.
- Strain into a bowl to separate cooked noodles and broth.
- Add a serving of noodles to each bowl.
- Add 1 and 1/2 cup chicken broth to each bowl (see Notes, below).
- Add 1/4 cup vegetable broth to each bowl.
- Place final garnishes on top of noodles.
- Enjoy
Notes
- I recommend starting with a 6:1 chicken:vegetable stock ratio, but you can adjust this to your preference.
- Play with the amounts of soy sauce and sesame oil for each serving, also. I would not recommend going higher than 2 tbsp soy per bowl, but play with it and see how you like it.
- For extra flavor, add a spoonful of warm chicken fat (reserved from the broth de-fatting step) to the final assembly.
k
Unraveling Time
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Kurt R.A. Giambastiani 
I just made this recipe exactly as written, and it’s absolutely beautiful. The broth is rich and only has flavors that go together. I’ve seen chicken noodle soup with all sorts of veggies swimming in it. Those can be good too, no doubt, but this is by far the best I’ve made myself.
I was really curious about the absence of herbs. But then, I can throw fresh herbs into it when I heat it up, if I really wish. I do also like carrot slices in it, so I’ll slice and cook some up and add them before I heat up the soup.
I love this approach to a “modular” soup, the base is already fantastic and adding things is only limited by imagination. Kudos, and thanks for the excellent and easy to follow write-up!
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Oh, I’m so glad to hear that! This is THE most popular posts on my blog, but I’ve never heard from anyone who’s actually used it. Thanks for the feedback. I, too, like the sort of build-as-you-go nature of it. Once you have the broths, you can go in many different directions. One of my favorites is with noodles and stuff, but with an unbroken poached egg on top (look for the post on “poached egg time trials”) that releases the buttery yolk over whatever you’ve put beneath. Cheers!
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I am happy that I found this post since this will be a big help to me for cooking a Chicken Noodle Soup. Since, I am about to cook a Chicken Noodle Soup tommorow. Thanks for your post! I will bookmark your website now to come across again your post.
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From The looks of your blog, you’re no stranger to chicken noodle soup! This will be a good one to add to your repertoire.
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[…] this one “not wrong” way to layer flavors? I think so. It seems a natural extension to David Chang’s chicken noodle soup recipe. Is this a “right” way? I’m not sure. It seems […]
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Thank you posting for posting this. Watched the”Simple” episode and my husband is craving this. Made it tonight and it was great!! The depth of flavor in the broth was amazing. This will be my go to recipe from now on.
Thank you again. 😊
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Brava! Glad to hear it!
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I am so excited to try this out! As simple as it looked when he was doing it, I was super frazzled trying to decipher what to do, how much to add, and what was needed to make this! I just finished watching this episode and was so happy to find your site!! Thank you so much for taking the time to do re-create this dish!!
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Glad to be of help. Report back on your results, if you would.
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[…] Chang’s solution is simple. Separate the aromatic cookery from everything else, i.e. prepare the […]
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Thank you! I love this recipe!
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Thanks for saving us all the effort of translating this recipe! I love the show too!
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You’re quite welcome. Enjoy!
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Thanks so much for deconstructing David’s recipe for us! I seriously rewatched the Simple episode 5 times in an effort to get this soup recipe in my head and figure out the missing pieces…your way was much easier! I am cooking right now and sure that it will turn out great. The main takeaway I had was keeping the broths separate, and only constructing the elements, especially the noodles, right before eating.
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Hi, Sebastien! This recipe has been a big hit on the blog, as many people had the same reaction after watching Chef Chang zip through it so quickly on the show. “What? What did he do?” I watched that part of the episode several times in order to break down his method. Testing it several times in the kitchen proved I’d gotten pretty close. It’s become my go-to recipe for chicken stock, too.
Thanks!
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I spent 3 hours making this soup only to have it give my entire family the mist horrific gas. Avoid! Avoid!!
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Hehe…Okay, whatever you say. I’ve never heard this complaint from anyone else, nor have I experienced it myself. What’d you serve it with? Cabbage and kale?
Sheesh.
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[…] As for recipes, sorry…I’m still going to post those. I love cooking (I have an idea for a new hot sauce I’m going to try this weekend.) After all, half the traffic on this site is for my Chicken Noodle Soup à la David Chang. […]
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[…] I hope you’re all not here for my David Chang Chicken Noodle Soup recipe. That recipe is giving my new posts some very stiff competition. (It is a great recipe, […]
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I’m a huge fan of soup, but I can never make chicken noodle that I’m happy with. The noodles get mushy, especially if I have leftovers.
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Noodles generally don’t store well, which is why I cook them fresh each time, just enough for what I’m serving. I find that egg noodles store best, but I still would rather build the broths and then just cook the noodles as needed. When cooking them, though, only cook them al dente; since they’re going to sit in hot soup for a while, they’ll continue to cook as you finish the assembly. That might be part of the reason they get mushy on you…overcooking.
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