Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

The winter weather has set in, and with the single digit temperatures, it's now time to turn to warm soups.  Some comfort food from our childhood, such as chicken noodle soup.

But have you read the ingredient label on the back of some of these soups? Sodium ascorbate, mono sodium glutamate, dextrose, soy protein isolate !!  And actual chicken was so far down the list that is was almost non existent.

I know, we all grew up on eating this at one time or another.  But let make some GOOD homemade chicken noodle soup.  We can make a BIG pot, freeze it in serving containers and serve it up when we need it.  You just need a couple of hours and you've got lots of good soup without all the chemicals, (and lots of chicken in it.)   This recipe makes 8 - 10 servings

 I found chicken leg quarters on sale for 59 cents a pound and these 4 sections are twice what I will need, (but I can use the excess for chicken salad, chicken enchiladas, chicken pot pie, and lots of other dishes).

First let's start with the stock:
chicken leg quarters, (some people use chicken breast - you can, but why waste your money).
a couple of medium onions
2 stalks of celery
2 medium carrots
a small handful of parsley, (you can use dried)
a few sage leaves, (you can use dried)
a few sprigs of thyme, (you can use dried)
salt, pepper, garlic powder
clean corn cobs (optional)

 In a large stock pot I put my cleaned corn cobs.
(I save my corn cobs from the summer, when I freeze my corn, and use the cobs in my stocks.  I just freeze the cobs until I need them.  It adds more depth of flavor to your stocks).  This is purely optional.

Next I cut the small pocket of fat off the leg quarter, (this is just where the leg and thigh connect).  This way you cut down on the excess fat in your soup, and you won't have to skim it off the broth.

Put your chicken in the stock pot.

Add your herbs - the parsley, thyme, sage, about 2 Tabs each of salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

Now clean scrub and cut your carrots, onions, and celery in half and add to the stock pot.  Don't remove the leaves from the celery, (they add more flavor), don't cut the vegetables in small pieces, (you want very BIG pieces - just cut them in half, or even leave them whole).

 Add water to cover everything thing, (1 gallon).  Cover with a lid, and place on the stove top over medium high heat.

 Once everything comes to a boil, reduce the heat to medium, and continue boiling for approximately 1 hour.  You want to make sure the chicken is cook completely.

Oh my gosh, does this smell wonderful,  The whole house already smells inviting.

After the chicken is cooked and the vegetables of pretty much mush, turn off the heat.  Remove all the vegetables.  Your going to throw these away.  They don't have any taste or value.  If you compost - this is a good use for them.  If you live on a farm, your animals will love them.  My dog and bird love the leftover carrots.

Remove the chicken and let it cool.

Strain the broth to remove any little bits left in, and you now have 1 gallon of wonderful chicken broth.  This can be used in so many wonderful dishes.  I'm going to use 1/2 of this for our soup, and freeze the other half for use later in other recipes.   Once the broth has cooled, skim off what little fat accumulates on top, (there will be maybe 1 tablespoon on top).

Of course if you want to skip this step, you can also use your choice of pre-packaged chicken broth, or chicken granulated broth products.  But for just a little time and the cost of 2 quart boxes of broth you can make 1 gallon of wonderful chicken broth that taste so much better.

Here's my broth after it has cooled.  As you can see, there's very little fat on top, and I have this huge bowl.

The chicken has cooled enough to handle, and now I've pulled off the skin and removed all the bones, and shredded the chicken.  I have twice the amount of chicken that we will need.

Now to make our chicken noodle soup, you will need the following:
8 cups of broth
2 cups of shredded chicken
2 medium carrots
1 large/medium onion
2 stalk celery
2 cups noodles
2 teas salt
2 teas pepper
2 teas garlic power
1 teas dried basil
1 teas dried thyme

chop your onion, carrots, and celery

 In a large dutch oven pot combine your broth, vegetables, salt, pepper, and herbs.  Cover with a lid and over medium/high heat bring to a boil.

After about 30 minutes, give the soup a good stir, add the noodles and the chicken.  Continue cooking until the noodles are done.

Give the soup a taste, does it need a touch more salt and pepper?  If so, give a little more and another stir.  Now your done.

And you now have a nice hearty bowl of delicious chicken noodle soup.  Tonight I'm serving my soup with a chicken salad sandwich.

So good, and so warming on such a cold winter night.


Enjoy.