KRATZMC

You can make homemade Chicken Soup in less than an hour. I use a roasted chicken you can buy at your local grocery store. Saves cooking the carcass and dealing with the aftermath.

This recipe will serve a dozen or more. I like to freeze the extra for later.

INGREDIENTS:

One cooked medium whole chicken, or 1 to 1 1/2 cups of diced Chicken.

Two 48 ounce boxes of Swanson’s Original Chicken Broth

3/4 package of raw Fettuccine Noodles (Contadina brand or similar), or 1 Cup of dry Egg Noodles (see note below if using dry noodles)

1 Cup sliced Carrots

1 Cup of Sliced Celery

1 Cup of chopped Vidalia Onions

1 Dry Bay Leaf

Coarse Kosher Sea Salt

Fresh Ground Pepper

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS:

Put broth in large stew pot or appropriate sized vessel and cover heat on Medium High heat while you prep the other ingredients. I add a pinch of Salt and grind in some black pepper and add bay leaf. Note: Wait until soup if finished to see if you need more salt and pepper. You can always add but its hard to desalinate your soup if you’ve over done it.

Remove skin from Chicken and pull meat away from the bones. I like a mix of dark and white meat. Chop or cut meat to desired size. Use 1 to 1 1/2 cups of meat. Set aside in large mixing bowl. Cut and slice Carrots, Onions and Celery and put into the pot. I add the meat last few minutes so as not to over cook the cooked chicken.  Keep one eye on the broth with Veggies. When it starts to boil, reduce to medium heat and re-cover.  Cook the Vegetables until firm but not quite done. About 10 -12 minutes. ( You can save the chicken bones to make your own stock) You can also freeze the carcass to make stock later.

While veggies are cooking, cut the Fettuccine Noodles into 3 inch lengths. They only take 2 -3 minutes to cook. After the veggies and broth are done, add the Fettuccine noodles and cooked chicken. Bring broth back to a boil. Reduce heat again, cover and cook for 3 minutes.  The Fettuccine will absorb some of the liquid. After 3 minutes, take a small amount and place it in a ceramic cup or bowl. Use a clean spoon and taste to see if you need to add more salt or pepper to taste. If you are satisfied, remove bay leaf , turn off the heat and serve.

You can also garnish with a fresh parsley sprig if you wanna make a better presentation.

Note: If you are using dry noodles, they will take 10 -12 minutes to cook. So add them when the broth reaches a boil and cook according to instructions on your package.  One way to do it is to cook the egg noodles in a separate pot, rinse with cold water and set aside. You can add them just before serving. You will need to reduce the amount of broth by 12 ounces, since it won’t be absorbed by the noodles. If you use the Fettuccine, you will have a tastier product.