Notes on chicken noodle soup

This soup is often overcomplicated, with too many bits and bobs included and more resembling a minestrone. All it needs is a good stock and vermicelli. I would not advise making it with ready-made vacuum packs of stock, as I have yet to find one that’s as good as one home made.

Tremble the chicken carcass, with whatever you may have, in roughly 3 litres of water. Maybe I medium onion - skin left on, and cut in quarters - a celery stick or parsley stalks, a smidgen of thyme, 2 chopped medium carrots and a few cloves of garlic. Mind you, just chicken, salt and water will make an excellent broth. Leave the lid on and, to reiterate, let the stock wobble rather than boil for a couple of hours.