Virginia’s Chicken Noodle Soup

Original recipe from:  Virginia Bowers-Johnson

Chicken Noodle Soup is another family favorite.  It is also another one of those recipes that Mother taught you to make, she never wrote it down.  Each batch always tasted just a little different depending on what Mother put in the soup.  Sometimes she made it with just chicken and noodles.  Other times she would add celery and carrots.  One thing was consistent, it was always good.  My children grew up with Mother's soups and loved them all, just as I did as a child.  My daughter, Pam would just give Grandma a call and put in her request.  Now those requests come to me.  It is an honor to receive those calls.  My mother passed the cooking torch down to me, and I am passing it down to my daughter (and son) through this blog.  What recipes will you pass down to your family?  Make cooking a family event so the “family recipes” are never forgotten.  Enjoy!

Note:  Not all of the measurements are exact in this recipe.  Feel free to increase/decrease as desired to your taste and the amount of soup you want to make.  Leftovers freeze very well.

Ingredients

3 cups Chicken, boiled and cut up

32 ounces Chicken Broth (I use Swanson’s 99% Fat Free, No MSG)

1 tablespoons GFS Roasted Chicken Base

1 cup Celery, diced

1 cup Carrots (shredded or diced)

1 small Onion, cut in quarters

3 stalks Celery

9-12 ounces Medium Egg Noodles (substitute your favorite noodles to taste) 

Directions

Boil chicken in large pot with plenty of water, the onion and celery stalks.  Boil until done, at least 1 hour.  The longer you cook the chicken, the tastier your broth will be.  Set chicken aside to cool.  Strain broth in a colander removing onion and celery.  Note:  I usually do this step the day before and refrigerate the chicken and broth (separately) overnight.  Refrigerating makes easy work of skinning and working with the chicken.  If making the full recipe in one day, let chicken cool thoroughly before proceeding.  Pour chicken broth into a container and refrigerate.  Skimming the fat off the refrigerated broth, before using, makes a healthier option for an old-fashioned recipe. 

Remove skin from the cooked chicken.

Take chicken off the bones.  I wear gloves and remove the chicken by hand.  Mom taught me to tear the chicken into chunks rather than dicing it.  She was a very “hands-on” kind of cook.  I believe it was her way of cooking from the soul.  If you prefer more uniform pieces of chicken, I would recommend you dice the chicken into a medium size chunk. 

Pour Broth from cooking the chicken in a large stock pot.  Pour in the additional store-bought Chicken Broth to the broth you made.  Add diced Celery and Carrots to the broth and bring to a boil.  Add Chicken Base to taste (I use about 1 teaspoon) to give your soup a little more chicken flavor.  Cook at a low boil for about 10 minutes.   

Add Noodles to the broth, bring to a medium-low boil and cook about 10 minutes.

Add Chicken chunks into the soup and simmer for 15-20 minutes.   

Ready to Serve – Enjoy!