Best Ever Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup
For as long as I can remember I have only ever been in love with three chicken noodle soups – my mom’s, stepmom’s, and Kenny and Ziggy’s. So after many over the phone run throughs, I have finally gotten down the perfect mix of the three. The neck and gizzards give the broth SO much added flavor (thanks mom), roasting the chicken ahead of time gives the soup such a deep, amazing broth, and the simple ingredients make this so easy. So amazing!!!!
BTW, here is a great article on why you should simmer your stocks NOT boil them.
Ingredients:
- 1, 3 lb. chicken, reserve the neck and gizzards for added flavor
- 6 carrots, chopped into thirds
- 3 stalks of celery, chopped into thirds
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 1/2 sweet yellow onions, quartered
- small bunch of fresh thyme, leaves and stems
- olive oil
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 6 oz. better than bouillon chicken base
- 1/2 bunch of parsley, minced
- enough water to cover
- 1 1/2 cups egg noodles (optional)
Directions:
- Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F. Clean chicken well, remove gizzards and neck, and reserve for cooking. Place chicken in a roasting pan, rub with olive oil, and season generously with salt and pepper. Place chicken in the oven for about 35 minutes and then remove. Deglaze the roasting pan with water, and be sure to scrape the good bits off the bottom and pour into the soup pot.
- In a large soup pot, throw in the onions, neck, gizzards, roasted chicken, and enough water to cover and place on high until the soup starts to simmer, then turn heat down. Make sure you never boil the soup, only simmer. After about 30 minutes put in the carrots, celery, garlic, bouillon base, and thyme. Simmer covered for the next hour. I like to taste about halfway through and season accordingly with salt and pepper.
- Simmer the soup for a total of an hour and a half. Once the soup is done, strain the broth and set aside (option here to let the broth cool in the fridge and skim fat off the top, or I just do it while its hot). Remove all of the chicken from the bones, and throw the chicken back into the broth. Take the carrots and celery and cut them into smaller pieces, about 1/2 inch and then place back into the soup. You will end up throwing away the onions so leave them in the strainer.
- Now you have the option to cook some egg noodles into the soup, this only takes about 4 minutes, so make sure you just simmer and not boil. Sprinkle diced parsley over the top and serve!!!!
Looks great!! Especially for this weather!!
This is pretty fantastic…and hearty! I had a cold, and then….poof! It was gone after whippin this up!
Pure comfort food! A bowl of soup soup sounds so good right now!
Thanks for bringing this “old faithful” to light. With this cold spell, I could use some old fashion homemade chicken noodle soup!
What a great idea for a soup.
Mmmm…. I love chicken noodle soup! Such a comforting soup, especially when it’s so darn cold out!
There’s not a better thing than a great bowl of chicken soup and yours looks fabulous!!!
Just got another skiff of snow this morning so I think it sounds like a Chicken Noodle Soup day. Is there anything better for the soul?
This sounds delicious! Perfect for the snowy weather we’re in the midst of here.
I want to make my own chicken soup soooo badly, but if I’m being honest the hardest part is dealing with the chicken and it’s gizzards, izzards, bizzards lol! So, perhaps I can have my husband handle that part and I will tackle the rest. One day I will be more of a grown up, I promise!
Totally agreed – that is the most blah part of the process but I just think to myself, ten minutes of icky for 3 days worth of amazing soup in my belly 🙂 haha. Hope you enjoy it!!
That’s a bubbling pot of goodness.
Yumm! Houston’s been so dang cold lately, I definitely need some of this in my life!
some fresh rosemary goes really well in homemade chicken soup too. It adds something special…
a tiny bit of crushed red pepper adds some flavor too..
I haven’t tried throwing in the gizzards or neck before.. never thought of it … now I might give that a try…. I make chicken soup from my roast chickens about every few months and freeze single serve batches in those little plastic soup cups from Chinese food soups. It’s nice to see stacks those beauties sitting in the freezer all year long, waiting for “I don’t feel like cooking dinner tonite” nights .. 😀