Recipe: Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Comfort.

Healing.

Love.

Warmth.

Wholesome Goodness.

Few foods can bring all of these thoughts to mind quite the way that a giant pot of homemade chicken noodle soup does.  

Well now...who knew I had it in me?  Hallmark, if you're looking for a new greeting card writer, I just might be your gal.  Drop me a line and we'll work out the details.

I recently made a pot of my mom's chicken soup for my family, and it was a hit (as always).  On the off chance that you're still getting snow and rain days mixed in with your sunny and 60 degrees days (like we are here in Idaho), I thought I'd share this wonderful recipe.  Choose a particularly chilly or grey day to make this - you'll be surprised by how it warms your home and tummy.

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Ingredients:

1 whole chicken

1-2 lbs carrots

1 bunch celery

water and/or low sodium chicken broth

chicken bullion

Reame's frozen egg noodles, 16 oz (or noodles of your choice)

thyme

pepper

garlic salt

Johnny's seasoning salt

Instructions:

~ Rinse and chop the celery.  Peel and chop the carrots.  How coarsely or finely you chop the veggies is entirely up to you.  They'll be cooking for quite a while though, so I recommend leaving them a little chunky to avoid mushy veggies.

~ Place entire chicken, carrots, celery, and 2-3 chicken bullion cubes in a large stock pot.  Fill with water to cover the chicken.  I typically defrost the bird and remove the stuff from the cavity, but this last time I made it I didn't.  I put the whole frozen chicken right in the pot and crossed my fingers.  Turned out just fine.

~Boil until the chicken begins to fall away from the bone.  This will take an hour or two depending on the size of the chicken and if it was frozen or thawed.

~ Turn off the heat and remove the chicken from the pot.  Let the chicken cool until you can work with it without burning your fingers.  I sometimes put it in the fridge or freezer to cool quickly.

Have you ever noticed just how undignified a whole plucked chicken looks?  I feel like I need to avert my eyes or put a towel over it or something.

See here?  The meat starting to come off the bone here is an indicator that this bird is cooked.

~  Remove some of the fat from the pot.  You can either use a spoon and skim it off, or

...you can use one of these cool things.  It's called a "fat separator", and you should be able to find one at any kitchen store worth it's salt.

Use a large spoon to skim off the top layer of soup, and pour it in the fat separator.  Let it sit on the counter for a few minutes.  You'll see the fat rise to the top.

Then, pour slowly back into the pot.  The fat is at the top, but the spout pours from the bottom.  You end up pouring the broth back into the pot, but leaving the fat in the separator ready to be tossed.  Genius!  Stop pouring if  fat or that icky brown stuff starts to make it's way back into your soup.  I usually repeat this process a few times until there is very little fat left.

 

~ Add some seasoning to the pot.  I typically season, taste, season, taste, etc.   Let's see, I probably put about a tsp. of thyme and pepper, and about 2 tsp. of the Johnny's and garlic salt.  If in doubt, leave the soup a little on the bland side.  It can always be salted and peppered at the table.

~Remove the chicken from the bone, chop, and return to pot.

If you're doing this right, the neighborhood dogs will start to howl for a taste, and  your dogs will sit in the kitchen and stare at you like this:

~If the liquid seems too low, add more water or a couple of cans of low sodium chicken broth.  

~Bring the pot to boiling (very important with these noodles).  Add the frozen noodles and return to a boil. Cook until the noodles are cooked through and no longer have a frozen or chewy center.  

~ Serve it up and watch 'em devour it!  We enjoy ours with lots of crackers and sharp cheddar slices on the side.  Pat yourself on the back for making such an inexpensive yet delicious and nutritious meal.  Write to me and tell me how much you loved it :)