I love home-made soup and this one is surprisingly easy to prepare. It can be enjoyed by the entire family with a bit of modifications.
*UPDATE 12/13/05
In my quest to prepare the perfect bowl of Chicken Noodle Soup I have changed the recipe. I think I have it perfect now. First, I will only use Free Range, Organic Chicken. It makes a huge difference. The broth is rich and delicious. Next, instead of adding the pasta directly to the broth, I now cook it separately. This way you can get the exact amount of noodles that you want, without having to fish out the chicken which gets tangled. I hope you enjoy this as much as my entire family/flock does.
Ingredients
2-3 pound whole chicken, cut up (preferably free range, organic)
1-2 cartons of low sodium chicken broth (32 ounces each)
16 ounce bag of mini carrots
3 stalks of celery with tops
4 cloves of garlic peeled and smashed
1 large yellow onion peeled and cut in half
teaspoon Kosher salt (for boiling water only)
1 TBLS garlic powder
1 TBLS onion powder
2 Tablespoons Fresh Cracked Black Pepper (or to taste)
Capellini or Angel Hair Pasta (very thin spaghetti) broken in half
Rinse all chicken parts and place in a large stock pot. Pour in enough water to completely cover. Add celery, garlic, onion and salt. Bring pot to high boil then reduce heat to a rapid simmer. Chicken will take about 30-40 minutes to cook. Simmering the chicken slowly will make it all the more tender.
Once done, remove chicken and place in a large bowl. Remove the vegetables and discard, leaving behind nothing but broth. Add the extra carton of broth to intensify the flavor, add as much or as little as you want.
Add the carrots, pepper, onion and garlic powder and bring your pot back to a boil and then reduce to simmer.
Prepare another large pot of water. Once it reaches a high boil, toss in the pasta and stir. Be careful not to over cook the pasta, it only takes about 5 minutes.
Using two forks, pull chicken apart discarding the skin and bones.
Add chicken meat to the broth and bring back to a rapid boil.
Once pasta is done, drain and rinse. Rinsing will reduce the starch.
Serve the pasta in individual soup bowls and then ladle the chicken soup over it. Add salt to your bowl as needed.
Feeds large family and flock
