How to make Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Simple Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

• One Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1 cup chopped carrots
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1 cup cooked, chopped chicken*
• 1 cup chopped, cooked potato
• 10 cups homemade chicken broth (or about six 14.5 ounce cans)
• 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
• 1 teaspoon chicken bouillon (optional)
• 8 ounces (half a pack) of extra wide egg noodles
• 1 Tablespoon butter
• sea salt

Heat olive oil in a large stock pot, cook minced garlic until fragrant.  Add onions, celery, carrots and saute to develop flavor.  Add chicken stock.  Add cooked chicken and cooked potatoes.  Allow soup to simmer.  Season with Italian spices and chicken bouillon or salt if needed.  While the soup is simmering cook the noodles a dente. Toss with butter and sprinkle with sea salt.  Serve the soup warm over noodles.  * Left-over rotisserie chicken tastes great in this recipe.  Normally I would use homemade chicken stock for this recipe.

For more details…

Here’s what I used for the soup today, because that is what I had.  Any mix of neutral garden veggies will do.  I have had success with yellow squash, zucchini, mexican chayote.  The key to get my kids to eat the veggies is to have everything sliced up small.  I have even added a small quantity of spinach, grains such as barley… the possibilities are endless.  At the last minute the soup didn’t look hardy enough so I added a chopped baked potato from the previous night’s dinner.  And… it’s red onion week.  I bought a big back at Costco.

Heat the olive oil, cook until fragment.  Do not over-cook.

Add the raw veggies and saute to develop the flavor of the soup.

The veggies look ready.

Add chicken broth.  Scrape the bottom of the pan to release all the lovely little bits of flavor.

Add the rest of the chicken broth.  At this point the soup did not look hardy enough so I added a cup of chopped baked potato.  Homemade chicken stock is always better, but my chicken carcass was discarded before I had a chance to make the chicken stock.

Add the chicken and bring to a simmer.  Season with chicken bouillon if necessary and italian seasoning.  Fresh herbs are best, so if they are available choose those instead of using herbs from the pantry.

Cook the noodles.

Toss the noodles with one tablespoon butter and sea salt.  Remember that every layer you add to a dish should enhance the flavor, not dilute it.

Another way to prepare this is to saute veggies and make base then transfer to the crock pot.  Cook the noodles ahead of time as well but be sure to keep them separate from the soup until you are ready to eat.  No one wants soggy noodles.  I prefer to have most of my dinner prep done before the kids get home from school.

Enjoy this simple weeknight soup.  Serve with  garden salad and toasted baguettes