Chicken Any Noodles Soup

Main or Side:  Chicken Noodle Soup

Mornings are getting nippier our side of the world.  It's time once again to whip out heavy stews and filling soups.

 

To start things off, am sharing with you this Chicken Noodle Soup recipe.  It will surely warm you up - both tummy and heart because memories of childhood start flooding back with each rich mouthful. So flexible too. You can use any type of noodle you have in your pantry: macaroni, elbow, flat egg noodles, gnocchi, etc. and will still deliver the same satisfying result.  You can clear out your refrigerator with left over veggies and meat bones.  I added a left-over pork bone for this batch.

Procedure and Ingredients (serves four people as the only dish plus a little extra for snack or breakfast)

The ingredients.

• Get a gallon bag, place 2/3 cup flour, season with salt and pepper.  Place 1.5 - 1.8 pounds of boneless chicken breasts. Toss a little so all parts of the chicken are coated with the flour mixture.  You can use bone-in but it's just a bother to remove the bones when you shred the cooked meat. 
• Heat a pan with 3 tablespoons of cooking oil then brown the chicken breasts.  You're not frying them so 3 minutes per side would suffice.  
  
• Place the chicken breasts and left over dredging flour in your soup pot.

  

  The left-over flour would eventually thicken your soup.

• Tie up a bouquet of rosemary and thyme herbs.  I just used a regular thread to tie them up in a bunch, stems and all.  Place in pot.
  
• Add 8 cups of water or stock. I used water for this batch and it is still as rich.  Boil then simmer for 45 minutes until the chicken is really tender.  Every 10 minutes or so, scrape off the gunk sticking on the sides of your pot.  You don't have to but I like the broth to be clear.  That's the magic of pho broth - clarity.

  

  Icky gunk.

• While your soup is simmering away, prepare the mire poix. Since the veggies will be cooked for quite a while, you don't have to be too precious in making fine cuts.  Just ensure that they're all basically the same size.  So I diced half of a big onion, 2 big carrots and 3 celery sticks.  Smash 6 cloves of garlic.  If you have left over potatoes, dice them up too. 
  

• If your celery sticks have leaves, set them aside after roughly chopping them up.  If you have left over cabbage, chop them up and set them aside too. You will cook the leafy veggies during the last few minutes of cooking process. 

  

  Chopped celery leaves on the left and
  roughly chopped parsley on the right
• After 45 minutes or so, when your chicken is tender, use a slotted spoon to fish it out along with the herb bouquet. Throw the bouquet and place chicken on chopping board or big dish to cool.
• Plonk in the chopped veggies in the broth.  Season with salt and pepper.  Add a teaspoon of turmeric too.  Boil then simmer for 15 minutes.
• Using 2 forks, shred your tender chicken breasts. This would be a very easy process.

We like our shredded chicken a little chunky.

• Bring your veggie soup to a boil and add the shredded chicken. Simmer for 10 minutes.
• Bring soup to a boil again and add your noodle of choice.  For this batch, I used gnocchi.  But my boys prefer macaroni noodles. Cook as directed. If you have leafy veggies, this is the time to add it.  
• Before serving, add half cup of heavy cream and a handful of chopped parsley.  We are so ready for cold nights :)
  
  
  

  

  Chicken Noodle Soup with Gnocchi.