Making Automatic Chicken Broth: Star Anise Vegetable Soup with Green Tea Soba

I’ve lately developed a little habit that I’d like to share with you. Everytime we have chicken, there are always bones left at the end, either the whole carcass if I’ve roasted a whole bird or if I’ve purchased an already-roasted one (yes, I sometimes do that), or just the thigh bones from the bone-in thighs I sometimes make. After dinner, as we’re cleaning up, I’ll just chuck every bone into the pressure cooker, chop up an onion and maybe a carrot, toss in a dried shiitake or two, season with some s&p and whatever else beckons, and saute the massacre in some olive oil. I’ll then add some water, bring it to a boil, secure the lid, and cook under pressure for about 30 or 40 minutes. All of this has become so automatic that I don’t even think of it as extra work — it’s part of the cleanup, almost.

The payoff is the next day: I’ve got some incredibly flavorful broth with which to make a simple vegetable noodle soup. You just saute a sliced onion, a carrot, and whatever other veggies are laying around your vegetable crisper: chard, kale, green beans, fennel, broccoli, cauliflower, whatever. I saute the veggies in some olive oil, and usually add a generous pinch of dried shiitake powder (made by pulverizing a few whole dried shiitake in the spice grinder or, even better, in the Vita Prep blender, which turns them to dust in no time flat) for the extra umami hit. If I’m in a hurry I’ll add a small ladleful of the broth to cook the veggies faster.

While the veggies cook, heat up a small pot of water for the noodles. Udon and soba are my two favorite noodles to use in soups, but you could use egg noodles, rice noodles, even spaghetti. I used to cook the noodles in the boiling broth, to save time, but that method creates too much starch for me, so I cook the noodles separately, and then just lay the al-dente noodles in a heated bowl, followed by the veggies, followed by plenty of simmering broth, followed by chopped up fresh herbs and salt. In the photo above I’ve used green tea soba, fennel, carrot, onion, and chard sauteed in plenty of freshly ground star anise, and topped off with purple basil and kaffir lime salt.

It’s hard to overestimate how good this kind of soup makes your body feel. The hardest part of making soup this good is making good broth. But if you can mentally link the making of a quick, easy broth as just part of your chicken dinner cleanup — and it really does just take a few minutes of active prep — it’s a snap. The broth freezes nicely in ziplock bags too, just in case you don’t have time to use it the next day.