Chicken Noodle Soup
Yield: 12 servings
My moms' from-scratch Chicken Noodle Soup is the best chicken noodle soup recipe, one that you'll make again and again! It features a flavorful homemade chicken stock, tender bites of chicken and vegetables, simple seasonings, and thick, chewy homestyle egg noodles. A delicious, comforting meal!
Ingredients
FOR THE CHICKEN STOCK:
- 1 (3½-pound) whole chicken trimmed of any excess fat, with inside cavity rinsed and cleaned well
- 10 cups water, or enough to just cover the chicken
- 1 large yellow onion, cut into large chunks
- 2 large ribs celery, cut into large chunks
FOR THE CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP:
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 3 cups peeled and sliced carrots, use medium-sized carrots and cut diagonally into ¼″-thick slices
- 1½ cups sliced celery, cut ¼″-thick and include any leaves at the top of the ribs
- 1½ cups chopped yellow onion
- 4 large cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoons dried parsley
- 1 bay leaf
- 1½ teaspoons Morton kosher salt
- 1½ teaspoons dried savory
- ½ teaspoon celery salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 to 4 tablespoons Better Than Bouillon Roasted Chicken Base, to taste
- 1 package (12 ounces) Reames frozen homestyle egg noodles, do not thaw
Instructions
Chicken Stock
- Place the chicken in a large pot. I use a 6.75-qt Le Crueset Dutch oven, and this works well. Add water to just cover the chicken, followed by the chopped onions and celery.
- Turn heat to medium-high. Once water just starts to boil, immediately turn heat down to medium-low. Cover the pot loosely with a lid, then simmer very gently for 1 hour, or until chicken is tender and easily comes off the bone. Adjust heat if necessary to keep it at a very gentle simmer. Skim off any scum from the surface with a large spoon once or twice during the first 30 minutes of cook time.
- Using a tongs, transfer chicken to a large rimmed pan to cool. Turn pot heat down to low and put on the lid to preserve the broth and its heat.
- When the chicken is cool enough to handle, remove the skin and meat from bones. Discard skin and bones. Shred the chicken into bite-sized pieces and set aside. I usually do not wait very long to start removing the meat - the chicken is still very hot. I pull off the legs and wings while holding a clean paper towel to shield the heat from my hands - these pieces should pull away very easily. Then I use 2 forks and continue to remove meat from the bones, and shred, barely using my fingers at all.
- Strain or scoop out the onions and celery from the stock and discard. At this point, I usually have 10-11 cups of stock.
Chicken Noodle Soup
- Increase the pot heat to medium and add the butter to the chicken broth. Once the butter has melted, add the carrots, celery, onion, garlic, parsley, bay leaf, salt, savory, celery salt, and black pepper. Simmer until vegetables are just barely softened, about 3 minutes.
- Add 3 cups of the shredded chicken back to the pot (add more/all if you like), along with accumulated juices from the rimmed pan. Save any extra shredded chicken to add to a fresh salad, fried rice, quesadillas, etc.
- Now remove about 1 cup of the broth to a small bowl and whisk in 1 tablespoon of chicken base until smooth. Add mixture back to the pot and stir to combine. Taste for flavor, adding up to 3 more tablespoons of chicken base, in the same manner, until the soup is flavored to your liking. I like a very rich chicken-flavored soup and find that different chickens have different levels of flavor - plus, it will depend on the size of your pot and how much water you actually use. So just keep tasting and adjusting until you reach a level of chicken flavor that you like. You may also want to add more salt and pepper. Just trust your taste buds!
- Stir the frozen egg noodles into the soup, then turn up the heat to medium-high. Once the soup just starts to boil, immediately turn heat down to medium-low and simmer gently until noodles are done, about 20 minutes.
- Serve hot, with chopped fresh parsley to sprinkle over individual bowls of soup.
Notes
from Mom's recipe box
Nutrition Information:
Serving: 1 Calories: 428kcal Carbohydrates: 12g Protein: 42g Fat: 23g Saturated Fat: 7g Polyunsaturated Fat: 13g Cholesterol: 138mg Sodium: 859mg Fiber: 2g Sugar: 4g
Nutrition information is automatically calculated by Spoonacular. I am not a nutritionist and cannot guarantee accuracy. If your health depends on nutrition information, please calculate again with your own favorite calculator.