From Scratch: Chicken Noodle Soup

I seem to be on a chicken noodle soup kick lately. When I was in my first years of college, I started making my own chicken noodle soup. It was good; infamous at my little brother’s parties, actually. But in the last month, I’ve revamped my soup, learned how to make noodles from scratch, and now I could eat this soup by the gallon.

In the Pinterest world, I come across lots of homemade soup recipes, and I’m always turned off when they tell me that I must make my own stock. I’ve tried making my own stock, and it wasn’t impressive. Actually, it was quite gross and I didn’t see any appeal in it. Maybe homemade stock is where my kitchen skills stall. It’s a good thing I’ve mastered an avoidance strategy: braised chicken breasts.Yummy.

Pre-drop-dead-delicious soup days, I’d boil my chicken breasts and just use the water from boiling as the base for my soup. This was good, but it wasn’t packed full of flavor.

This soup is PACKED full of flavor, it tastes like it took days, and the best news is that in less than two hours, with about 30 minutes of actual work, you can impress your family with this deliciousness.

Please see the notes at the end.

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

A phone picture can't do this justice. My apologies.

Ingredients

3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

3-5 carrots, peeled and diced

2-5 stalks of celery, diced

1 medium onion (sweet is best), diced

Chicken bouillon, 8-10 tsp.

Salt, about 1 tsp.

Pepper, about 1 tsp.

Johnny’s Seasoning, about 1 tsp.

Spicy Steak Seasoning (I have Simply Organic, but McCormick Montreal Steak works, too), about 2 tsp. 

Directions

Step 1: Braise the chicken

(I bought this 10 quart stockpot with my birthday money, and I LOVE it)

1.       Heat 1 tbs. olive oil in a heavy stock pot
2.       While oil is heating, liberally season chicken breasts with steak seasoning, Johnny’s, pepper, and salt
3.       Once oil is hot, add chicken breasts and cook about 3-4 minutes per side, until browned
4.       Meanwhile, in a 4 cup measuring cup, add 4 tsp. chicken bouillon and 4 cups of hot water to make chicken broth
5.       When chicken is brown on both sides, add the 4 cups of chicken broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for about 30 minutes.

NOW, go watch an episode of something embarrassing on TV, or put away those clothes that are piling up in your bedroom, and then come back when you’re done.

Step 2: Chop the veggies

Shameless Plug: Cole bought me this Ninja Express Chop for Christmas in 2011. I LOVE IT. I use it at least three times a week. When I make my soup, I use the Ninja to chop my onions and carrots. I tried it with the celery, and it didn't work very well, so chop those by hand. 

1.       Chop all of your veggies into whatever size you want, and add them to your pot.
2.       Make four more cups of chicken broth, and add that to the pot.
3.       Let simmer until veggies are tender.
4.       15 minutes before veggies are tender, pull out your whole chicken breasts, set them aside to cool, and proceed to step 3.

Step 3: Make your noodles

Yes, you can do it. No, it’s not hard. I promise that from now on you’ll make your own noodles for everything because it’s THAT easy.

I found Simply so Good, a blog written by a talented lady who knows her stuff. Her posts are funny, and she has excellent pictures that go with all of her recipes. I spent hours going through LITERALLY (yes, Sara Jo, I really mean literally) every recipe she’s ever posted. I sent myself so many emails with her recipes that my Gmail started to send my emails to the junk mail thinking I was being repeatedly spammed. No joke.

So, please head over to Simply so Good’s Homemade Egg Noodles post and use her tutorial. She uses a food processor, but because I don’t have a food processor (read that as: Sam will kill me if I buy another kitchen appliance), I used my mini Ninja, and it worked JUST as well.

Don't they look worth it? They are; I promise. 

Source.

After you’ve made the dough, let it rest, rolled it out to about 1/8^th of an inch thick, and cut it into little noodles, shred the chicken you took out in Step 2. Yes, shred. Please DON’T chop it. I have done it both ways, and if you shred the chicken, you’ll have bits of chicken in every single bite, which is the whole point of chicken noodle soup. After you’ve shredded the chicken, add it back into the pot. Once chicken is added, stir, drop in your noodles, and then stir again.

Step 4: Wait for it...

Let the noodles cook for about 10 minutes, and then get the biggest bowl you can find and eat up.

There ya go! Homemade, all the way from scratch, chicken noodle soup. Your heart, tummy, family, and waist line will be happy.

Notes for Success:

You can add more chicken broth at ANY time. If the soup is too chicken brothy (this sometimes happens), add water. Before you serve the soup, taste it and add any additional seasonings.

I don’t really measure anything when I make this soup. I just taste it a lot and add more as necessary. If you accidently add too much of something, just add some water.