This recipe was supposed to be chicken noodle soup but in the end I completely forgot to add the noodles. It reminded me of an occasion when I was cooking with my niece when she was young. We were making tuna pasta bake for a family dinner and just as we were dishing up we realised we’d forgotten to add the pasta.

Whenever I roast a chicken I always make stock – adding enough cold water to cover the carcass in a large saucepan, throwing in an unpeeled onion (chopped in half), a couple of carrots, a stick of celery, bay leaves and peppercorns. I bring to the boil and then simmer on a low heat for about 40 minutes. It makes a great basis for soups especially this chicken broth which is an ideal way to use up left over chicken – particularly all those tiny bits of chicken you can salvage from the carcass (before it goes into the pan to make stock).

If you don’t have your own stock you can use a stock cube.

Makes 2 large servings, 4 smaller servings (or if you add noodles it will go a lot further)!

Ingredients

• 1 litre of chicken stock
• Small pieces of left over chicken
• A punnet of mushrooms, sliced
• Small tin of sweetcorn
• Clove of garlic, grated
• Thumb sized piece of fresh ginger, grated
• Red chilli, finely chopped
• 2 spring onions (one sliced)
• Tablespoon of soy sauce
• Splash of sesame oil

Method

1. Heat the sesame oil in a large saucepan on a low heat and fry the garlic, ginger, chilli and the sliced spring onion for about a minute, stirring all the time (don’t let the garlic burn).
2. Add the chicken, mushrooms, sweetcorn, soy sauce and chicken stock and bring to the boil.
3. Turn down the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes.
4. Ladle into bowls and garnish with fine strips of spring onion.