Food & Swine

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Yesterday, the weather changed and it truly felt like fall.  I love this time of the year, but it sprung up on me.  After being outside in the barn, then giving pitching lessons in the wind and chill, I had to have some warm soup.  Chicken Noodle is my favorite type of soup, it is no secret.  This revelation was made when I spent a short time in the hospital when I was two for a decent surgery.  My Mom said I ate all of the hospital chicken noodle soup and put the bowl up to my mouth and slurped the last drops down.

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Chicken noodle soup is so comforting. Not the kind in the red can, preferably the kind my Mom makes or the recipe I’m sharing with you today.  My recipe incorporates any type of cooked chicken you’d like, the usual onion/carrot/celery trio, my secret ingredient of 1 package of my Freezer Corn, fresh thyme AND fancy “Pig Tail” noodles.  I love these little corkscrew noodles.  They are reminiscent of another part of the male pig’s anatomy (think the short name for Richard), but the other day my daughter said they looked like pig TAILS… and that is much more kid-appropriate.  I hope you can make this bowl-of-comfort for your family when the weather turns raw, as it always does in the blessed Midwest!  Here’s the recipe, and a couple of step by step photos at the end of the post!  Start to finish, I was done making this soup in 17 minutes!  (I had the pasta, pre-cooked and drained in the refrigerator!)

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Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

By: Cristen      www.foodandswine.com
Author: Cristen

Ingredients

  • 2 TBSP Butter
  • 1 TBSP Olive Oil
  • 1/2 C chopped yellow onion
  • 1 1/2 C chopped carrots 3/4" pieces
  • 4 stalks celery chopped 3/4" pieces
  • 1 TBSP fresh thyme leaves or 2 tsp dried thyme leaves
  • *you can omit thyme altogether if you'd like.
  • 1/2 tsp Lawry's seasoned salt or other seasoned salt, or plain salt
  • 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
  • 2-3 C freezer corn  don't drain or 1 can of corn, drained of 1/2 the liquid in the can
  • C chicken stock homemade or canned
  • 1 TBSP corn starch
  • 1 TBSP water
  • 1/2 lb 1/2 a box of Cellentani/Cavatappi noodles, cooked to al dente in boiling salted water, drained
  • 2-3 C cooked chicken chopped, shredded etc. (rotisserie, grilled, baked... you choose!)
  • 1/2 C heavy cream  whole or 2% milk work too

Instructions

  • In a large stock pot over medium heat, add butter, olive oil and onion.  Cook for 4 minutes, add carrot, celery, thyme, seasoned salt and pepper.  Cook for 3 minutes, stirring frequently, until vegetables are crisp-tender.  Add corn and cook 1 minute while stirring.  Add chicken stock.  Combine cornstarch and water to make a 'slurry' (this will slightly thicken your soup), add to soup mixture and bring to a boil.  When boiling, add cooked noodles and chicken. Continue boiling for 2 minutes to meld flavors.  Remove from heat, add cream and season to taste.  Serve immediately, with garlic bread as a side.  Leftovers can be stored in refrigerator for 3-4 days.  Soup will thicken in refrigerator.

Notes

After adding the corn, I cook the mixture a bit to concentrate the corn flavor in the soup.

After adding the corn, I cook the mixture a bit to concentrate the corn flavor in the soup.

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I had leftover garlic butter noodles from the night before that I kept in the refrigerator.  I cooked the chicken while I prepared the soup, just had to toss it in at the end!

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Wonder what the cornstarch/water mixture will look like?  This is a cornstarch ‘slurry’.  This mixture will take the soup from being very  broth based and thin to a texture that will stick to the noodles a bit more and be just a tiny bit thicker.  The addition of cream at the end off cooking  (off the heat so nothing curdles) will add richness to the soup that is so comforting.

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Things are still pretty green and soggy here in Iowa.

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Solving kindergarten problems (lack of snacks on early out Wednesday) on a feed sack.

Halle5yr

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