This is my husband, Dave's, favorite soup. It seems like a lot of friends are getting bad colds, sore throats etc, so I decided I should get prepared for it hitting our house soon and made a batch of my homemade chicken noodle soup. I am off from work today and you definitely need a day off to make this because it takes time. I also make the noodles which are very easy to make for it because that's his favorite part. I am the opposite and like tiny thin noodles in my soup, but every so often I make it like he likes because I am just that way..here's how it goes..
OLD FASHIONED CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP:
(I use my double cooker with the strainer in it-nice to just pull out the chicken and other additions so easy, but you can just use a big heavy kettle and remove everything from the broth too if you don't have one.)
Fill kettle about half full of water, put in strainer part and add clean whole chicken, 1 small diced onion, 2 carrots chopped large, and 2 stalks celery chopped large..don't need to be fancy, this is just for the broth and will be thrown later on anyway..2 bay leaves, salt and pepper well. bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat to a low simmer and let it cook until the chicken legs are falling away from the chicken, a couple of hours or so..remove the chicken to cool a little and throw the other items away. set the broth aside so some of the fat rises to the top and then skim that off. after skimming, put the broth back on the stove and add two cleaned and small diced carrots, 2 stalks of celery finely diced and a little finely diced onion, salt and pepper to taste and 4 bouillon cubes or chicken base (about 3 Tablespoons)..after the chicken has cooled enough to easily handle, remove it from the bones toss the skin and any extra fat or icky parts. then chop and add most of it, or all of it if you want tons of chicken into the broth. Add the noodles (recipe below) or whatever kind of noodle you prefer, cooked until they are tender. eat.
NOODLES:
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 Tablespoons water
1/2 teaspoon oil
1 egg, beaten
In a small bowl, combine flour and salt, blend well. Make a well in the center, add water, oil and egg. gradually work flour into the liquid to form a dough. on a floured surface knead until dough is smooth, about 2-3 minutes. form into a disk and wrap in plastic or a ziplock baggie and let rest at room temp 1 hour.
on a lightly floured surface roll dough out as thin as possible into a rectangle. starting with shortest side, roll up into thirds. cut into 1/4 inch slices, unfold slices and cut on the fold lines, or into size you like. drop noodles into soup. after soup returns to a boil cook uncovered for 5-10 minutes or until noodles are tender, stirring occasionally. *This makes a big batch and they expand, so you might want to only use half or so of the batch, otherwise you will have chicken hotdish with the leftovers..
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