If I take anything that makes me feel better, I tend to use that newfound energy to overexert myself. Chicken noodle soup is one main important and nutritional food which we can easily prepare at our home.
Ingredients
For the Soup
- 1 whole chicken, 3-4 pounds
- 3 quarts water
- 1 large onion, diced
- 3 large carrots, peeled and sliced
- 3 large stalks of celery, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, diced
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 teaspoons dried sage
- 1 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
- 1 teaspoon dried marjoram
- Salt and pepper, to taste
For the Noodles
- 2 cups flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 whole egg
- 1/4-1/2 cup water
Instructions to make Chicken Noodle Soup
- Firstly place the chicken in a large Dutch oven or soup pot. Cover with water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until the chicken is falling off the bone, about an hour. Remove the chicken, and let cool to touch. Remove the meat from the bones.
- Then add the onion, carrots, celery, garlic, bay leaves, sage, thyme, rosemary, and marjoram to the broth. Bring back to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until the veggies are tender, 15-20 minutes.
- When the broth is simmering, make your egg noodles by mixing together the flour and salt in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre, and add in the egg yolks and egg. Using clean fingers, mix together until it is lumpy and yellow (it should look a bit like scrambled eggs). Add in water a few tablespoons at a time, kneading after each addition, until the dough comes together to form a ball.
- Flour a work surface, and roll out the dough until paper-thin. Using a sharp knife or a pizza cutter, cut into 1/4″ x 2″ pieces.
- Now put the noodles, just a few at a time, to the simmering broth. Once all noodles are added, also add in the chicken. Boil noodles for 3-5 minutes until they are tender and no longer doughy. Season with salt and pepper, and serve.
Actually find making soup from scratch to be super relaxing. And it’s really low stress. There are two parts of this recipe that really make it “from scratch” the first is using a whole chicken to create the stock, right in the same pot that you cook the soup in. It gives you so much incredible flavour that you’ll never be able to recreate using a store-bought broth. You can make some darn good soup using the boxed stuff, but for the best ever chicken noodle soup, make it fresh using a whole chicken. You’ll be happy you did. It’s also cheaper. Around here, you can get a whole, free-range, organic chicken for about $15. You’d spend that much on organic broth alone.
The other from the scratch aspect is the egg noodles. You can definitely pick up a bag of egg noodles from your store, but there is something really nice about making your own egg noodles. It sounds time-intensive, but it really isn’t. And man, are they yummy.
These noodles are remarkably similar to dumplings, but they are just rolled out thinner and sliced smaller. If you’ve never made your own egg noodles before, my one big bit of advice is to roll them as thin as you possibly can. Like, paper, see-through thin. They will expand like those growing dinosaur sponges you used to get from the dollar store as a kid. Other than making the broth and the noodles, all the rest of the recipe really requires is some chopping and simmering.
And the best part about chicken noodle soup—it makes a ton. So you can eat on it throughout your entire illness, giving you plenty of time to rest and recover. Hopefully, by the time your leftover soup is gone, you’re feeling much better.
If you aren’t sick yourself, you probably know someone who is, and I literally can’t think of something sweeter than bringing your sick friend a bowl of chicken noodle soup made from scratch. You always see people doing that on TV shows and in the movies, and it always seems like such a nice thing to do. Plus, it makes enough that you can keep some at home for yourself because chicken noodle soup isn’t just for when you have the crud. Everyone wins.
