Chicken Noodle Soup From Scratch

Hello,
my name is Stephen Hazen. I’m an experienced home cook who has been making Chicken noodle soup since I was in middle school. Chicken noodle soup is a delicious companion dish to many main course meals and is an excellent warm up from the frigid winters we experience on the Great Plains. Homemade chicken noodle soup is also a great healing dish for sickness. I’ve seen many people’s recovery from a cold speed up dramatically with a few helpings of my homemade soup. I’m going to show you the process that I use to make a delicious pot of homemade chicken noodle soup. While this soup will be delicious on day one, it will get better as a leftover dish able to be reheated and enjoyed all week long.

For ingredients, this process will necessitate a whole raw chicken (preferably unfrozen), water (tap water will work fine as long as it’s safe to drink), A large can of Chicken Broth, Chopped carrots, Celery, onion, and garlic (only a couple slivers). Chicken Bouillon, 1 can of cream of chicken soup, a package of uncooked egg noodles, (I like Kluski noodles) Lawry’s seasoning salt, black pepper, garlic powder and any other seasonings preferred.

Begin with your chicken in the pot. Fill the pot with water to a point that it covers your chicken. This is important for fully cooking the bird, but also due to the fact that you will lose water to evaporation. Insert your Chopped Garlic, onion and celery. I prefer to chop them into large pieces so I can easily remove them at the deboning stage. Season with Lawry's seasoning salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Bring the whole thing to a rolling boil and boil until the chicken is fully cooked. This will take 90 minutes and will work faster if your chicken is not frozen. Make sure the chicken is fully cooked to a point that the chicken can fall off the bones. Making sure that the chicken is fully cooked will make the next steps easier.

After the Chicken is fully cooked, allow it to cool enough to handle. Remove it from the pot (it may be in pieces) and begin the process of de boning the chicken. You will need a separate container to separate your chicken from the bones in. A 9x13 cake pan works great for a small chicken. You may decide to remove the onions and celery at this point, or leave them in the broth. It depends on your preference of what you want in your soup. De boning can take time, and is drastically aided by experience and knowledge of chicken anatomy. The goal is to get all the meat off the bones.

Begin by breaking the chicken chunks down and putting them back into the water that you just boiled the chicken in. This water will be the base of your soup that will be amplified later. Continue de boning until you are left with only the most difficult chicken meat, bones, skin, and fat. These can be discarded or used for another purpose if you have one.

Bring your de boned chicken and water (now containing all the flavor from the chicken) back to a boil. Add the can of chicken broth, chicken bouillon, cream of chicken soup, and your chopped carrots. Bring this back to a boil until your carrots start to soften. Once this occurs, it is time to add your noodles. Boil these until they are soft. Taste your soup and add seasonings as needed. Allow to cool to an edible temperature and enjoy!