Rotisserie chicken helps make quick job of hearty Asian soup

I have to admit, my inspiration for this recipe came from The Commercial Appeal food guru, Jennifer Biggs. She recently had a column about rotisserie chickens and how versatile they could be as a base for many dishes, including entrees that come together quickly for fast and delicious meals. I found myself in need of such a thing recently, so I picked up a prepared rotisserie chicken at a nearby grocery store, and located a recipe to make that suited our needs.

It was a cold night, and soup sounded delicious and nourishing. But there was no time to make a batch of the slow-cooked, homemade variety. So a recipe for a quickly-puttogether version of pho, Asian style soup consist- ing of flavorful broth, noodles and meat, with fresh ingredients added to it, fit the bill. All this, embellished with condiments, make pho both satisfying and tasty.

This recipe is no exception, and, even accounting for the time to pull off and shred the chicken and chop the vegetables, we were sitting down to our steaming bowls of pho in less than 30 minutes, start to finish.

Starting with a rotis-

serie chicken made this recipe easy. Sure, if you have leftover chicken, use that. But store-bought rotisserie chickens are great to fall back on. They are so tender and moist, making it easy to take the skin off the meat, removing much of the fat.

Don’t throw away the skin and bones once you have pulled off and chopped the meat, though. Save these in a container or a zip-top bag in the freezer until you have time to make your own flavorful broth for your next batch of soup. Cover with water, add roughly chopped carrots, onions and celery and simmer for a couple of hours. Voilà! Broth for your next batch of soup.

But this soup is easily made with packaged low-sodium broth, too. Simmering it with the bay leaf, five-spice powder and fish sauce gives it a fuller body and richer flavor so it doesn’t taste like flat chicken broth out of a can or box.

Fish sauce is made from anchovies and peppers, along with other seasonings. It is quite salty, but a little goes a long way. You can find fish sauce in Asian markets, or sometimes in the international section of large grocery stores. If you don’t have five-spice powder, use a small pinch of ginger, cinnamon and a few grains of cloves.

This recipe doesn’t call for bean sprouts, often found in pho, but if you like them, add them at the end with the cilantro and green onions. Though not included in the original recipe, I added purchased shredded carrots to this soup, which added some color and vitamin A to the mix. You could easily add a couple of handfuls of fresh spinach or other leafy green if you have some around, for extra flavor and a kick of nutrients.

Notice there is plenty of protein in a bowl of this soup, not only from the

Makes 4 servings, about 1½ cups each. 1 Put rice noodles in hot water in a large bowl to soak for 10-15 minutes. 4 ounces rice noodles 6 cups low-sodium

chicken broth 1 bay leaf — Pinch of five-spice

powder 1 tablespoon fish sauce 2 cups shredded rotisserie chicken (or shredded from leftover chicken) 1 cup frozen, shelled

edamame 1 cup shredded carrots 1 lime, cut into wedges 1 small bunch cilantro,

chopped 4-5 green onions, chopped 1 small jalapeno, minced –– Sriracha, optional –– Hoisin sauce, optional chicken: edamame, which are immature soybeans, add this important nutrient as well. Edamame are often served at Asian restaurants, boiled in their pods and salted, ready for you to shuck the shells and pop the delectable green morsels into your mouth. But you can buy them already shelled in the frozen section of your grocery store, perfect for a recipe like this one, where you can just open the package, remove the desired amount, and put the rest back in the freezer for another time. And no pods to shuck. When tender and pliable, rinse and drain. Set aside. 2 Heat chicken broth, bay leaf, five-spice powder and fish sauce together over medium heat, and simmer 5 minutes. Add chicken and edamame and simmer for another 5 minutes, until heated through. 3 Add drained rice noodles and simmer another 30 seconds until hot. 4 Pour into bowls. Squeeze a wedge of lime into each bowl, then top with cilantro, green onions, minced jalapeno and sriracha and hoisin sauce as desired.

This is a very adaptable recipe. Add different vegetables, use angel hair pasta if you don’t have the rice noodles, and manipulate the add-ins to suit your and your family’s tastes. And thank the makers of rotisserie chickens for helping you get a healthy, tasty meal on the table in a such a short time. Megan Murphy is a Tennesseelicensed registered dietitian and associate professor of nutrition at Southwest Tennessee Community College. Call 901-2773062, fax 901-529-2787, e-mail Meganmyrd@aol.com.