To make a good soup, the pot must only simmer or 'smile'

Homemade chicken noodle soup is easy to make and so much healthier and tastier than the canned offerings you buy at the store.

My recipe is inexact because I don’t measure the ingredients.  The ingredients are so fresh and simple it’s effortless to make a perfect pot of soup.

Ingredients:

>     Roasting Chicken

>    Celery

>    Carrots

>    Onion

>    Parsnips

>    Egg Noodles

>    Kosher Salt

>    Black Pepper

In a large soup pot place two carrots, two stalks celery, one parsnip and one onion . . . I cut them in half before I put them in the pot.  Sprinkle salt and pepper over the vegetables to your taste.  Rinse the chicken and put the whole chicken on top of the vegetables. 


Fill the pot with water.  Bring to a boil then turn down to a simmer.  Cook until the chicken starts falling from the bones (about 1 ½ hours).

While the chicken and stock are cooking - cut up celery, carrots and parsnip into bite size bits . . . 3 or 4 of each.

When the chicken is cooked, remove the chicken from the pot and place into a colander nestled in a large bowl.  This will capture the juices that will flow from the chicken. 

Remove and discard the cooked vegetables from the stock.  They will be mushy and not good to keep for the soup.

Check the stock for flavor. Add salt and pepper, if necessary.

Put the cut-up vegetables in the pot and return it to a boil.  Once the stock comes to a boil, turn off the heat and add a ½ a 16 oz. bag of egg noodles.  I will sometimes use the whole bag but the noodles will absorb enough of the liquid that I will have to add more stock.

The vegetables and noodles will continue cooking while you remove the meat from the chicken. 

I generally remove the breast meat and set it aside to be used for chicken salad or another recipe and use the dark meat for the soup.  Feel through the meat for bones and discard any skin and fat.  Put the meat in the pot along with the liquid that dripped off into the bowl.

Now you’re ready to package it.  One pot of soup typically gives me 10 – 15 2-cup Tupperware containers of soup.

I keep 5 containers in the fridge and the rest go into the freezer.

I pack one for my husband in his lunch along with yogurt, cheese, fruit, a homemade pickle and oyster crackers.

City law in Ocean City, New Jersey:

"It is illegal to slurp your soup."