Chicken Noodle Soup

This is the ultimate cold weather comfort food. My daughter loves this even thought she is not a big veggie eater.  The fennel bulb adds a little bit of sweetness.  I usually am not a fan of it's flavor but it works really well here.  This is a two part recipe that starts with homemade chicken stock and no you cannot used canned stock here, it is not the same.  This is totally worth the effort!

Homemade Chicken Stock Ingredients:

1 chicken preferably split in half for easy of placement in pot (roasted or raw)

2 medium onions, peeled and quartered

3 celery stalks cleaned and halved

3 carrots peeled and halved (or 16 baby peeled)

1 head of garlic

Hand full of fresh parsley stems and all

2 tbsp of salt

12-16 cups of water

Place the chicken in the bottom of a large stock pot (6qt or larger) and top with all of the vegetables.  Pour enough water to cover chicken and vegetables.  Bring to a boil, add salt and reduce to a simmer.  Simmer for 1 1/2-2 hours.  Remove chicken and place aside until cool enough to handle.  Remove bones and skin from chicken and shred meat.  Reserve for further use.  Strain broth into a storage container and discard cooking vegetables.  Allow broth to cool before placing on the refrigerator.  The easiest way to de-fat the broth is to allow it to chill overnight in the refrigerator and scrape the hardened fat off the next day.  

Chicken noodle soup ingredients:

Half the shredded chicken

1 onion, halved lengthwise and sliced thinly into half rounds

1 fennel bulb, tops removed, quartered, cored and thinly sliced

16 baby carrots sliced into small rounds

3 celery stalks, sliced thinly

Olive Oil

Reserved chicken stock

Broad egg noodles

Salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in a large soup pot.  Add onions and fennel and cook to soften, about 5 minutes.  Add carrots and celery, season with salt and continue to about another 5 minutes.  Add chicken stock until desired soup level is reached, about 5 cups.  Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer.  Simmer for 15 minutes.  Meanwhile, cook noodles according to package instructions. Add reserved chicken and bring back to a boil.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  To serve, add noodles to the bottom of the soup bowl and ladle soup over the top.  Do not add noodles directly to the soup as they do not store well in liquid.