My in house taste tester wasn’t feeling well last week. When I asked him if he wanted me to make him anything special to eat he asked for Chicken Noodle Soup. I decided I could do better than the neon yellow boxed stuff so I searched the Internet until I came up with a chicken stock from scratch recipe I was happy with.
I made the stock on a Saturday then put it in the fridge overnight. On Sunday all I had to do was cook the veggies in the stock add the chicken and noodles and serve.
It was AMAZING! I don’t even really like chicken noodle soup, but this I would make again in a heartbeat.
It is really easy, just time consuming. It is totally worth the 3 hours to make your own stock, it is so flavorful and rich tasting. The fresh veggies in the soup still have a little bite to them and the noodles are warm and soft, it is comfort in a bowl for sure!
What you need,
For the stock,
1 whole chicken cut into parts, or I used 2 bone in/skin on chicken breasts and 4 bone in thighs
1 yellow onion, peeled and quartered
1 leek, rinsed and coarsely chopped
3 stalks celery, quartered
3 large carrots, quartered
4-5 cloves of garlic just peeled, left whole
6 sprigs fresh parsley
6 sprigs fresh thyme
10 whole peppercorns
2 tsp. salt
8-10 cups of water
I got exactly 6 cups of stock.
For the soup,
6 cups of chicken stock
3 ribs of celery, diced
3 carrots, diced
1 small onion, diced
2 cups, reserved cooked chicken, diced
1 ½ cups noodles (I used skinny egg noodles but anything you like would work)
2 tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
To make the stock,
Place the chicken pieces in a large pot and cover with enough water to come up at least 2 inches over the meat; I used 8 or so cups.
Bring the water to a simmer over medium high heat. Skim any foam that comes to the surface. Add in the onions, leeks, carrots, celery, garlic, parsley, thyme, peppercorns and salt. Return mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to low and gently simmer, uncovered for 1 hour or until the chicken is cooked through.
Carefully remove the chicken pieces from the pot and place on a plate. Allow it to cool slightly. Once you can handle it, remove the meat from the bones and reserve for later.
Put the bones back into the pot and discard the skin. Continue to simmer for another hour. Pour the contents through a fine-mesh strainer into a large bowl. Be sure to press down on the solids to extract all the flavor. Discard all the solids.
Let the stock cool on the counter. You can easily skim off the fat once it is cooled.
You can use the stock right away or you can cover with plastic wrap and store in the fridge like I did.
Or you could freeze it at this point too, for later use.
To make the soup,
In a large pot heat 6 cups of chicken stock over medium high heat until just simmering.
Add in your diced onion, carrots and celery. Cook for 15-20 minutes until the veggies are tender.
Add in the reserved diced chicken and the noodles and cook for 8-10 minutes until the noodles are cooked through.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
To finish the soup off stir in the chopped parsley.
Ladle into big bowls and enjoy!
I can’t confirm the healing properties of chicken soup but my in house taste tester is feeling much better this week!!
Jen
Stock recipe adapted from Williams Sonoma
