Chicken Soup

Folks-
I finally sat down and wrote out my chicken soup recipe, the one I first mentioned when I posted my moms egg noodle recipe. There are a bunch of variations that I have come up with that I'll mention after the main recipe.
Here it is! Enjoy!

Chicken soup

1 lb raw skinned chicken, diced

1 batch noodles (or 1 package egg noodles)

3 carrots, sliced

3 celery stalks, sliced

2 T olive oil

1/4 onion, diced

1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning

1 clove garlic, crushed or minced

8 cups water and 8 teaspoons (or 8 cubes) chicken bouillon, or 8 cups chicken stock

In a large pot, sauté the chicken and garlic in the olive oil until the chicken is cooked thoroughly. Add the vegetables and stir-fry until tender. Throw in the Italian seasoning, then add the water and bouillon and bring to a boil. Turn heat down to medium, add noodles and simmer for 20 minutes. Serve warm.

Variations: You can use commercial dry egg noodles instead of the homemade noodles if time is an issue, but you run the risk of the soup tasting a lot like a commercial soup. I recommend frozen noodles over dry. Frozen noodles can be found in many supermarket frozen food sections by the frozen breads or pastas. Look for frozen ravioli, it'll probably be on the bottom shelf if they carry them. You may need two bags. Experiment and have fun!

You can use already cooked chicken, such as rotisserie chicken (yay Costco!), leftover fried chicken, or canned chunk chicken breast, or leftover turkey. Simply skip the step of browning the chicken and stir-fry the veggies instead.

I usually don't make a single batch of this soup. Usually I buy enough eggs, chicken, celery, and carrots for at least two batches, cut it up, and freeze the veggies in a ziplock bag, freeze the chicken in another (smaller) bag, and the noodles in another bag, and put the seasonings in a sandwich bag. I end up putting the various bags together in the freezer and then up to a month later, stir-fry the chicken and veggies, add the water and seasonings, bring to a boil and add the noodles and boil 10 minutes for a quick dinner.

Egg Noodles

Folks-
My chicken and Turkey noodle soups are well known in my circle. The real secret to them is the homemade noodles. Since I haven't figured out the measurements for the soup ingredients yet, I'll post the recipe for the noodles first. It's my moms recipe, with a variation at the end from my dad. I prefer the egg yolk version over the whole egg, but it takes so dang many eggs! Both versions are easier than most people would think. Give them both a try and see which you prefer!

Here it is, my mom's homemade noodle recipe!


Egg Noodles
E. Pearl

6 Egg Yolks
1 Whole Egg
1/2 Tsp Salt
1 1/2 Cups Flour

Mix together in the order above until very stiff. Roll out dough on a well floured board to 1/8" thickness. Cover with a towel and allow to dry for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Roll the dough into a cylinder and slice first once along the length of the cylinder, and then across the cylinder to make noodles of about 1/4" width. Boil for up to 45 minutes.
You can substitute 3 whole eggs for 6 egg yolks and 1 whole egg.