Chicken Noodle Soup Made With Homemade Stock

I don’t know if you’re aware, but it’s not super warm outside.  You might even go so far as to say it’s cold.  Granted, the sun is out in DC for the moment, and we aren’t buried under mountains of snow (sorry, Boston).  Where I’m from, the wind chill has my parents wayyyy down in the negative double digits.  So it could be worse.  I know.  Anyone further north than me will think I’m a whiny sissy.  But you shouldn’t say it out loud, because then I won’t share this recipe for chicken noodle soup with you.  And then you will be cold AND soupless.  And nobody wants that.  Also, WordPress desperately wants to autocorrect “soupless” to “soulless.”  Do with that what you will, but remember– WordPress said it, not me!

I don’t have classes on Fridays this semester, and since I’m not doing an internship either, I’m left with an overwhelmingly exciting amount of free time at the end of the school week.  At the semester’s start I planned to go to school every Friday morning and work alllllll day.  But, umm…the road to hell is paved with good intentions, right??  Instead I stay home and do not school work.  Oops.  Good thing things are about to get SUPER crazy at school and I’ve spent the last month being really on top of things.  NOPE.

THIS Friday, however, BF is home sick with a cold, and there are few things I like better than playing nurse– an excuse to make a lot of tea and do very little, including– perhaps– schoolwork?  Yeah, I think I can get behind that.  Obviously I had no choice but to make some chicken noodle soup.  BF wouldn’t drink orange juice if his life depended on it (well, except mimosas because DUH), so chicken noodle soup is extremely necessary.  Also it’s not hard.  Neither is making your own stock for said soup, which I have never tried before!  If I bought chicken more than once a month and actually had bones lying around on a regular basis, I would never buy stock again.  Dead. Easy.

Chicken Noodle Soup

For Homemade Chicken Stock:

• Chicken Bones, approximately 2 chickens’ worth
• Enough Water to fill a 6-8 qt. pot after you’ve put 2 chickens’ worth of bones in it (Sorryyyyy I didn’t plan to blog this so I didn’t measure, but then it was delicious so I had to blog about it.  Suffice it to say you will need lots of water.)
• 1 Onion, quartered
• 3-4 Bay Leaves
• 2 T. Dried Thyme
• 2 T. Dried Rosemary
• Salt, a few pinches

Bring all ingredients to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for the rest of your life.  Or for at least a couple of hours.  Mine tasted ready to go after maybe 2.5 or so, but you could simmer it for a whole day if you were aiming for “bone broth,” which is apparently very trendy now but also maybe a load of hooey.  Anyway.  The point is, simmer it for at least a couple of hours til it tastes right.  Drain into a large bowl through a fine sieve (the longer you’ve simmered, the more grateful you will be for that sieve.  Unless you like bone shards in your stock).  Let it rest for a couple of minutes, then skim off the gross layer of ick that forms on the top.  You can either use the stock immediately to make soup (see below) or keep it in the fridge in a sealed container.

For Chicken Noodle Soup:

• 6 c. Chicken Stock (more if you prefer a runnier soup– mine was definitely thicker than intended)
• 1 Chicken Breast, cooked (roast it, boil it, whatever.  Make it not raw) and shredded
• 3 c. Carrots, sliced
• 2 c. Celery, sliced
• 2 c. Egg Noodles
• Salt, to taste

Bring stock, chicken breast, carrots, and celery to a boil for about 5 minutes.  Add egg noodles and cook til tender.  Salt (or pepper, or whatever spice floats your boat) to taste.

This soup is simple and soul-warming.  It doesn’t have any fancy frills, which is just what you need when you’re sick or cold.  Or just hungry.  It leaves TONS of room for experimentation, though, so if you are so inclined, have at it.  But for those times when you need something simple and comforting, this soup has got you covered in a big way.  If it weren’t gross and weird I would bathe in this stuff.  So yeah.  Good luck getting THAT mental image out of your head.