Chicken Macaroni In Milk Broth

I would like to apologize for failing to deliver my once regular weekly posts to those of you who look or looked forward to them.  After an 11-month depressing dry spell, my freelance work has been picking up quite a bit for the last six or so weeks.  After months of countless rejections of my writing samples since the year began,  I was starting to think that I'd  never sell an article in 2010.  I have even been entertaining the idea that  I was finally  an eligible candidate to have a landfill named after me for quite sometime now.  Luckily, the landfill idea has been staved off since I finally sold a few articles and have managed to snag a few clients here and there.   I have been taking advantage  of this momentum. Hence, my absence from the blogosphere.    It has been quite a juggling act (an enjoyable one though)  between the day job and the writing assignments. 

Now on to the business of food bloggering...

A gray and rainy Manila afternoon at 3pm.

The Philippines is in the midst of the tropical rainy season.  The past few weeks have mostly been scenes of seemingly unending dreary and  murky afternoons.  

With the cooler temperatures that come with the wet season, what can possibly be a better way  to stay warm by tucking into a bowl of  hot macaroni chicken soup of soul-soothing, milky wholesomeness while listening to the rhythm of fine needles of rain pelting your roof and window panes in the middle of a sluggish  tropical afternoon or slate gray evening?

 View from my car window as I sit stuck in traffic in the middle of a heavy downpour. 

No intentional  Photoshop blurrings here. 

Almost every culture, it seems, has a version of chicken soup to call its own.  This is  one of the many versions of chicken soup in the Filipino repertoire known as sopas, which is the Spanish word for  "soup."  This is the only macaroni recipe you will most likely ever encounter in the Southeast Asian repertoire that also happens to be free of  the bold flavors  that are usually associated with region's cuisines.  

Please excuse the photo's lighting.  It has been quite difficult to shoot anything in this weather so I photographed these in my kitchen under fluorescent  (eeek!) lights.

I always think of this dish as the Filipino permutation of the minestrone soup;  which, in turn, was brought to America by Italian immigrants.   Given that the Philippines was an American colony for close to half a century (1898-1945 or 1946), I'm guessing that this sopas is American in origin regardless of its Spanish name since macaroni and spaghetti were  some of the non-perishable convenience (canned) foods such as Spam, corned beef and Cheez Whiz  that were introduced to the Filipino diet at the end of the Second World War.  Older Filipinos who lived through the horrors of the war under the Japanese Occupation have fond memories of the aforementioned products being distributed by American soldiers at the end of the war.

This recipe usually calls for evaporated milk but it is even better with whole milk.  Luckily, that strange and  indescribable taste of UHT milk (it's the closest  thing to fresh milk that's available here)  that I can't stand disappears in all the onion and milky chicken stock's flavors.  The secret to this recipe is in the milk and the onions.  If you are entertaining the idea of using skim milk, soy  milk or non-fat milk, I'm afraid you missed the point of this dish.   It would be best to just not attempt this at all.


Most people simply saute the onions, but I usually sweat the onions when I make this.  The onion's juice cuts through the milky broth's richness and rounds out the flavors quite nicely.   Traditionally,  the sopas is usually served with steamed rice, which has led me to call it a  meal of carbohydrate redundance.  To avoid any carbohydrate overload,  I usually just take this macaroni soup as is, without the rice.  It stands quite well on its own and not to mention that I still carry the cultural baggage that pasta and rice just do not go together on the same plate.  As I've said, it's carbohydrate redundance.  


 If you attempt this dish, cook just enough amount of macaroni that you'll need.  Make sure to separate the broth from the macaroni if you have left overs, otherwise the pasta will absorb the broth and will take on a mushy, paste-like texture.

Chicken Macaroni In Milk Broth (Sopas)

300 grams chicken breasts or thighs bone-in; fat and skin removed

4 cups water

2 cups elbow macaroni

1 medium onion, chopped

1-2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp  oil ( no olive oil pls.)

1 carrot, cubed

1 stalk celery, thinly slice

1 cup c whole milk

salt and pepper** to taste

Directions:

1. Boil the chicken breasts until cooked, reserve the stock.  Shred the chicken breasts.

2. In a separate pot, boil the macaroni until half-cooked, drain and set aside.

3. In another pot, over low heat, add the oil and sweat the onions by covering the pot   This will prevent the onions' juices from drying out and will cook in their own juices.  The onions have been properly sweated once they're soft and limp.

4. Add the chopped garlic, taking care not to burn them.

5. Add the reserved chicken stock and milk and bring to a boil.  Add the half-cooked macaroni, cooked al dente.

6. Add the carrots, celery and shredded chicken once the macaroni is cooked al dente. Turn off the heat.

7. Season with salt and pepper.  Serve immediately.