BEST Chicken Noodle Soup!

Submitted by Liz Beginner Cook

"I have two major food goals in life: 1. Make the perfect chicken soup. 2. Make perfect spaghetti and meatballs. Still working on number 2, but this recipe for chicken soup is amazing!! It's so easy, too! It came from Country Living and even with my limited culinary skills, I nail it every time :-)"

 

• Ready In: 2hrs 40mins
• Ingredients: 15
• Yields: 1 Cup
• Serves: 16

ingredients

• 4 lbs chicken
• 3 quarts chicken broth
• 6 peeled carrots
• 4 stalks celery
• 3 medium onions
• 5 black peppercorns
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 2 sprigs parsley
• 2 sprigs thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1⁄2 teaspoon cayenne
• 3 cups egg noodles

directions

1. Put whole chicken and broth in large pot over medium heat (be sure that the broth covers the chicken).
2. Roughly chop and add 2 carrots, 2 celery stalks and 1 onion.
3. Add peppercorns, garlic, 2 sprigs parsley, thyme, bay leaf.
4. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer and cook, covered, 1 1/4 hours until chicken is tender.
5. Remove the chicken, strain the broth and discard the vegetables used to make the broth.
6. The meat should be falling off the bone from the chicken, chop the meat that you want in the soup and discard the rest.
7. Let broth rest a bit and skim fat from top (to be honest, I'm very lazy on this step and it never seems too fatty to me!).
8. Chop the remaining 2 onions, 4 carrots, 2 stalks celery.
9. Heat butter over medium heat, add the chopped vegetables and cook about 7 minutes, until onions are translucent.
10. Add the chicken meat, the broth, salt and pepper and the cayenne. I said 1/2 tsp of cayenne, but I probably use more (I like it to have a little heat!).
11. Simmer soup for 1 hour, covered.
12. Stir in noodles and cook about ten minutes (I also really like orzo for this soup, just be careful not to use too much or it will be more of a porridge!).