Chicken Noodle Soup, Chicken Noodle Soup, Chicken Noodle Soup (With A Soda on the Side)

Now Let It Rain....And Clear It Out

For those of you who have no idea what I'm referring to by the title of this post, I give you Webstar's & Young B's "Chicken Noodle Soup" (2006).

Awww yeah, chicken noodle soup! Always a crowd pleaser in my books. I used to make this for my guy friends in college to give me something to do on football Sundays and practice my recipe. Since I was feeding a group of 22 year old boys, my soups took hearty to another level. These boys could barely handle second helpings. (I'm pretty sure this is because it was that good...but then again maybe they didn't want to hurt my feelings.) 

In any case, I now feel pretty confident about this recipe. So I'm not saying this will blow your grandma's recipe out of the water, but it might give her a little run for her bingo money...

Classic Chicken Noodle Soup

Ingredients:

8 cups of chicken stock 
white egg noodles

1 whole chicken breast (on the bone if you can -- i think it tastes better! 

3 stalks of celery 

1 parsnip

1 large carrot 

1 shallot

2 cloves of garlic

allspice 

caraway seeds

1 sprig of thyme

2 leaves of sage 
3 bay leaves 

pepper

salt 

parsley flakes 

dried chili red peppers 

chicken base (or bouillon cubes)

gruyere cheese (or another favorite stinky one)

Prep:

• Combine chicken broth and the chicken (Cut into chunks) with the bone and bring to boil. 
• Cover and reduce heat to a lil' simma for about 20-30 minutes. 
• At this time you can go ahead and chop and cut up all your veggies. 

Cook:

• Use a spoon to skim out the fat from the chicken & broth. (This step always seems to be a lot easier said than done - so just do your best.) 
• Use tongs and place the chicken aside to cool for a while.
• Reduce the broth to a simmer and then load in your cut celery, shallots, parsnip & carrot. 
• I usually take a taste test of the broth at this point and add a spoon of chicken base or a bouillon cube if needed. 
• At this point the chicken should be cool enough so remove the excess fat, skin & bones and chop into bite size pieces. 
• *I usually prefer to shred the chicken with my hands rather than chop it up with a knife. 
• Add the chicken into the soup with a few dashes of salt and pepper with the minced garlic. 
• Cook these guys up for about 10 minutes then add in a few dashes of caraway, bay leaves, all spice, thyme parsley and sage. (I go a little herb crazy sometimes) 
• I like my soups with a little kick to them so this is where I chop up the dried red peppers and add them in. 
• Bring it all to a boil and then add in your lil' egg noodles. 
• At this point I kind of make it up every time and add extra dashes of all of the above based on preference and finish it all off with some fresh squeezed lemon juice. 
• Once the noodles are cooked, remove from heat. 
• Shred up some of your favorite stinky cheese and let it melt on the top. 

Now enjoy your chicken noodle soup, chicken noodle soup and your soda on the side (optional).