Chicken Noodle Soup

What is better in the winter time than homemade chicken noodle soup?? Nothing I tell you! The kitchen smells so good as it’s cooking and it makes the perfect meal. Full of veggies, chicken and just plain ole deliciousness. It’s my husbands favorite soup so he’s pretty happy that I’ve perfected this recipe. I’ve had a flop or let's call it, "not quite flavorful enough soup" in the past so I’ve upped the herbs and now it’s perfect! I’m writing this as mine simmers so I can’t wait to dig in at dinner time! And it's really simple, a huge plus!

Here’s what I did to prepare the soup. Before I went to bed the night before I was going to make it, I put a whole chicken in the crockpot and let it cook overnight. I also filled up the crockpot with water, a few stalks of celery, onion, peppercorns and garlic so that I’d also be making the broth all at one time. How’s that for multi-tasking?? I thought it was pretty ingenious so I hope you are a little bit impressed. This soup is so much better with homemade broth, but it’s also delicious with store bought broth. I made it for my parents this summer and didn’t have homemade broth and it was still perfect. They  loved it! Okay, enough talk, let’s get to making the best chicken noodle soup ever!

Ingredients:

4 Tablespoons olive oil

1 onion diced

6 stalks celery – sliced

6 carrots – diced

1.5 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary (or dried)

1.5 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme (or dried)

1.5 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian flat leaf parsley (or dried)

4 quarts (plus) chicken broth (homemade if you have it).

3.5 cups cubed skinless, boneless chicken breast meat

16 oz package egg noodles

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

In a large pot, over medium heat, cook onions, celery and carrots until soft. Put the lid on and cook about 30 minutes (that’s how long it took mine to get good and soft). I don't want to bite into crunchy carrots in my soup......it's happened before!

Add rosemary, thyme and parsley and stir. Simmer for another 5 minutes and add chicken stock, noodles and chicken cubes. Simmer over low heat for 30 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste and enjoy!

Look how flavorful the homemade broth looks with all the herbs. Yummy!

I keep extra chicken stock on hand because as you eat this soup it seems to need more. I’ve probably added another 4 cups or more as the week went on while we enjoyed it for many meals. It's so good! I promise. :-)