Japanese Udon with Homemade Chicken Broth

 WARNING: IF YOU DO NOT LIKE THE IMAGE OF COOKED, WHOLE CHICKEN, PLEASE DO NOT LOOK FURTHER!

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Poor fella...

 

(image credit) Not too long ago he was this,

now he's  this...

Remember when I said I wanted to make my own chicken broth one day. Well, I still haven't. But I watched it being made in front of me. The thing with living and cooking at home is that mom does everything for you, which can be really great, except when mom doesn't let you do anything for yourself. Boo. I went to the store, bought a whole raw chicken for $9 and announced my plans to make chicken broth and asked for simple directions to do so. Directions quickly turned into a take over and mom ended up making the chicken broth. But here are her simple directions:

1. Wash the chicken
2. boil a big pot of water
3. boil the chicken for about 30 minutes
4. take the chicken out. Separate the meat from bones and use later in other dish or in your udon.
5. salt and sugar to taste. Normally she would put MSG because she's an OG but I specifically nagged her not to use carcinogens.

I also bought the above ingredients to make my own udon. Udon kit with noodles and seasoning. Red Kamaboko, like a fish patty. Frozen beef balls. I made that collage from memory but further research shows that it is not Tu Ky Choy, but rather Ta Ku Choy, part of the bok choy family. The udon packet came with those udon noodles.

Mom also thinly sliced some shallots and fried them until crispy to make her own fried onion toppings.

After cooking the udon and beef balls separately in water and heating up the broth in its own pot, I assembled everything together in the bowl. Then I added the seasoning packets from the udon kit and we were good to go.

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS

Though the meal turned out successfully delicious, I feel bummed that I can't claim credit for any of the flavor elements of the dish such as the broth or the seasoning since I used the packet, or even the crispy onions which added alot of flavor. Oh well, at least it was my idea to combine all these elements together in my own version of udon. Maybe another day I will make everything from scratch the way I hope.

Pricing: Other than the chicken, I don't remember the prices, but I'm sure it worked out to be under $10 per bowl, most likely even less. All the ingredients and the broth can make about 6 bowls. I still have leftover takuchoy and broth. Hmm...what to make?