Chicken Noodle Soup

Chicken noodle soup is simply delicious. And homemade broth just soothes the soul.

Here's what you'll need

1 whole chicken (4 pounds-ish)

3 celery stalks

4 carrots

1 onion

3 garlic cloves

1 teaspoon salt (for broth)

couples shakes of salt (for noodles)

1 cup flour

1 egg

1 teaspoon olive oil

3 tablespoons water

It amazes me that a whole chicken can be cheaper than buying a couple chicken breasts. And clearly you still get two breasts out of the deal plus all the other meat. 

Organic chickens tend to be more expensive, but you can find a non-organic or regular or average chicken for around the $5 or $6 dollar range. Heads up, some come with giblets (organs like the heart or kidneys). Those will be inside the chicken. Make sure they aren't in some kind of packaging. But they can go in the stock too.

First toss the chicken into a big pot.

 Throw in some celery. No need to cut it, just break it so it fits in the pot. Keep the leafy things on too.

 Now peal and quarter the onion. It makes it easier if you cut the top and bottom part off then peal it.

 This is what the onion looks like quartered.

 Peal the garlic cloves too.

 And throw the onion, celery, salt, garlic and carrot in with the chicken.

 Now fill the pot up with water.

 Toss the lid on and bring it to a boil. Since the pot is so full, it will boil over really easily. So just watch it and take the lid off and lower the heat to medium/medium-high.

 Now boil the crap out of it for 1.5 to 2 hours. The chicken will fall off the bone and the whole chicken skeleton will disconnect...like this.

 While the stock is going through it's 2 hour cooking process, you can make the noodles. I have this amazing standing mixer, but you can do this by hand. Just mix the flour, egg, salt, olive oil and water together. The dough needs to hold together in a ball. Depending on the size of the egg, you may need more water or flour. So just add little bits of flour if it's too sticky or a few splashes of water if it's too dry.

 It comes in handy to have a sous chef waiting for any spilled flour.

 Here's what the finished pasta dough will look like. Put a handful of flour on a clean surface and get ready to knead.

 If the dough is sticky when you touch it, add some flour. To knead press down on the dough like you are giving CPR. I use both hands, but that's kind of a problem when I'm trying to take a picture of myself.

 So give a CPR style push, fold the dough in half, spin it 90 degrees....

 then CPR press again. Do this over and over and over and over for a few minutes.

 If you're using a standard mixer, divide the dough in half and slap it to flatten it down.

 Ta Da! Beautiful standing mixer with pasta attachment. If you don't have one, grab a rolling pin and roll the crap out of the dough. Make it as thin as you like while keeping in mind that the pasta will poof up 3-4 times when it cooks. I recommend a thick noodle in soup.

 For the lucky standing mixers, set the rolling contraption to 1, run the dough through, fold in half, run through again. Then set it to 3 and run through.

 That's what it looks like. If you get holes in the dough, it's too sticky. So put a handful of flour on the dough and fold it in half, then run it through again.

 Next get the pasta cutter attachment, the thick one that looks like fetticuni and run it through to cut the pasta.

 I use a pizza cutter to make littler pieces.

 Once your broth is done, put another big pot in the sink along with a strainer. Slowly poor the chicken and broth in the strainer. You will get a chicken broth facial as the steaminess hits your face.

 Now debone the chicken. I like using tongs because I'm too impatient to wait for the chicken to cool to use my hands. Sometimes it's easier to focus on pulling out the bones and skin (throw that out, it's not for sous chefs) than it is to pick the meat out. Save the meat. Throw out the other stuff.

 Put the broth back on the stove and bring it to a boil.

 Sometimes you get little bits of skin or fat that float to the top. just get a spoon and skim them out. Or leave them if you just don't feel like it.

 You don't have to use all the broth in the soup. It just depends on how much you want to make. I like to freeze a few cups to make later. It comes in handy for pasta sauces or (big surprise) other soups.

 Chop up the last carrot. You could add more celery if you want, but I don't like cooked celery. The texture is just gross.

 Add the carrot. Then shred some chunks of chicken, really however much you want. You won't need all of the chicken you just cooked. I can usually fit one chicken into three meals for my husband and I. Now add your noodles. I prefer a very noodle heavy soup. But if that's not your style, freeze your extra noodles.

 Add freshly ground pepper and boom! Completely homemade chicken noodle soup. It works wonders when you're sick and is just comforting. The homemade stock is wayyyy better than anything that comes in a can. You just feel better eating it.

 My husband has to have crackers with his soup, always.