Chicken noodle soup, meet macaroni & cheese. Even before my culinary school days, I knew these classics would hit it off. The comfort they have brought me through breakups, stomach flus and hangovers could only multiply when combined. However, this wouldn’t be a typical romance between a steamy soup and a creamy noodle dish if a sexy, velvety French wildcard wasn’t thrown in the mix. It’s the man that our mothers warned us about. His accent almost as sharp as the indentations of his six pack, this foreign intruder is exactly what this story needs.
Soup & Macaroni, meat Veloute. This velvety, smooth sauce tastes like a sexier, more refined version of gravy (my chef instructors are probably cringing at this point in the story). Simply put, veloute is roux (equal parts fat and flour) mixed with stock. Even though it has a rather simple preparation, it holds the title of one of the five mother sauces in French cuisine that most chefs around the world have mastered.
Yields
6 individual servings in muffin tins
Ingredients
1 can (14.5 oz) chicken stock
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups uncooked whole wheat pasta (macaroni, rotini, penne….)
1 piece of whole wheat bread, toasted
¾ cup shredded Parmesan cheese
Recipe | Baked Chicken Noodle Soup
In order to get this heavenly helping of soup done within thirty minutes, you definitely need to multitask!
Heat the chicken stock in one pot as you boil water for pasta in another. The water should taste as salty as the ocean! As you wait for your water to boil, go ahead and make your veloute. Melt butter* in a sauce pan over medium-low heat and whisk in the flour. Whisk this mixture until it becomes pasty in texture and blond in color. Whisk the hot stock into your roux (Congrats, you have made veloute!). In total, cook the veloute for twenty minutes in order to eliminate any raw flour taste. Once your water is boiling, add pasta and cook until al dente (the pasta will have a slight bite to it). Drain pasta thoroughly and add to veloute. Mix in half of your cheese and add pasta mixture to muffin tins that have been sprayed or buttered. Crumble toasted bread over the pasta and sprinkle with leftover cheese. To finish, put pasta under the broiler on high and serve hot as a side** dish!
Mix it Up
If you’re counting calories, replace the butter with a whipped version or olive oil/butter combination AND/OR replace the whole milk cheese with a part skim version.
If you’re a vegetarian, replace chicken stock with vegetable stock. Add cooked diced vegetables (celery, carrots) or frozen veggies to the mix. To make a complete protein without meat, replace the bread crumbs with toasted nuts like pine nuts (whole grain pasta + pine nuts = complete protein).
*Yes, in the classic culinary world clarified butter is used to make a roux. However, for our purposes it’s not necessary. Plus who’s got time for that?
**If you’re making this as an entrée, add diced chicken or sliced ham and vegetables.
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LOVE THIS!!!!!!!!!! and love you. So proud
And can’t wait to make this someday when I have a free sec haha yayyayayayy!!