Saturday, May 7, 2016

Chicken Noodle Soup

When you're sick, nothing but chicken noodle soup will do! I even braved Costco on a Saturday when I realized I was out of chicken.

Ingredients:

  • 2 chicken breasts
  • olive oil
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 4 carrots, peeled and chopped
  • 2-3 celery stalks, chopped
  • 2-3 garlic cloves, minced
  • optional: chopped mushrooms and/or 1/2 bell pepper, chopped
  • 4-6 cups chicken stock
  • 1 t. thyme
  • 1/2 t dried parsley (or fresh if you have it!)
  • fresh ground pepper
  • a dash of oregano
  • 4 oz noodles of your choice-egg noodles are traditional


What to do:

  1. Salt some water in a small pot and throw the chicken breasts in to simmer. 
  2. While they're simmering, chop all those veggies!
  3. Put a drizzle of oil into a deep pot or dutch oven and put in the onions. After a couple minutes, add the carrots, celery, and garlic.
  4. While those simmer, remove the chicken out of the water  to cool. Then pour chicken water through a mesh strainer and add the water to the pot, with some "better than boullion" or boullion cubes. That gave me about 2 cups of liquid, so I added 2 more cups from a box. 
  5. Dice chicken and add to pot.
  6. Add mushrooms and peppers if using, thyme, parsley, pepper, and oregano. Don't add salt until you taste it, because the stock contains salt and may be enough for you. 
  7. If you want to let it all simmer for awhile, feel free. Check your pasta directions, put in the pot, and cover with broth if needed. I added 2 more cups of stock to the original 4 cups. Simmer according to package directions, probably 10-15 minutes, and remove from heat. Taste and add salt/pepper if desired, and serve!