Thursday, October 9, 2014

Chicken Noodle Soup from scratch

I have a sick kid at home today. He has croup. Its pretty scary but mostly harmless. Whenever a kid is sick I make chicken noodle soup from scratch. I can't tell you the number of people who don't know how to do this. I guess not everyone was raised by a german grandma. I also made bread with this soup but I just used the bread machine so its no biggie.




Here we go...

Buy some chicken ON THE BONE. I can't stress this enough. Quit being an pansy, save yourself some money and buy some chicken thighs. The bone is where the marrow is and that is where the flavor comes from. If you use chicken breast or a Costco rotisserie chicken you will have to add bouillon. Here this was 11 bucks at Safeway which was actually sort of expensive compared to winco. I used half of this enormous chicken pack and I like my soup pretty meaty. If you wanted to you could cook it all and then use half the meat for enchiladas or something...This is a budget meal. It makes a ton and it cost me under ten dollars.

Ingredients:
1. Chicken on the bone (8 chicken thighs is sufficient)
2. Salt
3. Water
4. Pepper
5. Egg Noodles or really any kid of pasta. You could even use rice if you have leftover rice or if you are gluten free.
6. Carrots (I like the baby ones because I am lazy but normal ones are cheaper)
7. Celery
8. Onion
9. Garlic (optional)
10. Chicken Bouillon
Time: 4.5 hours

Directions:

I am visual so this is going to be mostly photos...

Open the chicken


Rinse the chicken. This is an optional step. The slime grosses me out so I rinse it pretty well.

 Put the chicken in a big pot and totally cover it in water. Like a lot of water.

Chop an onion. I use a whole onion. If you don't like onions just use less and chop it tinier.

 Add some carrots. My kids like them this size so that they can pick them out.
 Chop some celery. Like 4 big stalks. I don't even peel it.
 Add some of this chopped garlic. Garlic is so good for you and helps you immune system. You can't even taste so no worries. One teaspoon will do the trick.
I buy mine at costco and it looks like this. It lasts pretty much forever.

 Add two tablespoons of salt.
 Turn your burner on to medium and put a lid on it.
This is time I started it, about 12:30. Don't you love my ex wallpaper. So vintage 1990. HA HA!

Now after it has all been boiling for some time...
About 4 hours its time to take the thighs out.
 This is the part a lot of people don't like. Wash your hands and then pick all the meat off the chicken. Put it right back into the broth you have in the big pot. Yes its greasy and warm.  It is worth it.

Now cook those noodles. Use another pot and cook them. I like egg noodles which is not the same thing as italian pasta noodles. My kids also like it when I use broken spaghetti noodles so it looks like Campbells. 
 Do a taste test. It is too bland? Add some bollioun, salt and pepper. Try it again. Add seasonings a little at a time.
 Add your noodles and BAM. You have a huge pot of healthy yummy soup.


This post has not been spell checked. I have kids.


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