Chicken Noodle Soup=Delicious

So last week I said there would be no more 80+ days in Cleveland.  That fact has turned out to be true, but the weather is still unseasonably warm this week!  I was all set to make homemade chicken noodle soup in preparation for a cold evening and was not going to be deterred by this strange warming trend.

Let me take you through the stages of Soup

A Time Consuming Endeavor

• This process of "soup making" is not for the faint of heart.  In total, by the time I finished grocery shopping, it took nearly 3+ hours to make the soup.  So, plan on taking some quality weekend time to construct this delicious dish.

Cookbook

• While I was home over labor day, my mom recommended I buy The New Basics Cookbook by Julee Rosso & Shelia Lukins.  Following her advice I ordered a used copy on half.com. (Here's a link in case you are in the market for a new cookbook).  It really is a great cookbook with a wide variety of recipes that will satisfy both the new and experienced cook

Recipe

• Because my mom was out of town and I couldn't bug her for her recipe (which is straight out of her old school Betty Crocker Cookbook) I decided to try the one in The New Basics.  Here's the ingredients list I ended up using, and my take on the cooking directions.
• Ingredients
• 1 chicken, 4 or 5 pounds, preferably a stewing hen 
• 2 onions, halved
• 6 ribs celery, with leaves
• 6 carrots, peeled
• 3 cloves garlic
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 3 quarts water
• 1 chicken bullion cube
• 1 package Egg Noodles

• So I took the chicken out of the package, gave it a rinse, left the skin on and broke it down into a few pieces.  Some recipes say you can use the whole chicken intact to make the broth, but other recipes recommended cutting the chicken up to make tearing it later easier.  I prepped the veggies and added them to the pot.  I reserved 1 cup of chopped celery and 1 cup of chopped carrot to use later in the overall soup.  
• Quick note, get all the veggies into the pot with the chicken before you put the water in, it makes life much easier.  When you add the water, bring it to a boil, reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 2 hours.  Note this is a long time.  Also, you should skim off any foam that forms.  I did not have any foam, and I'm not sure why.  Let me know if you are familiar with this concept of "chicken foam"
• After the long 2 hours, remove the chicken, let it cool, discard the veggies (sorry they are no good after their stew with the chicken!).  Once the chicken is cool enough to handle, take it off the bone, get rid of the skin, shred and set aside so it can go back into the soup!
• Strain the soup broth. At this point you have 2 options.  You can let the broth cool in the fridge so the fat will be easy to remove (but it requires more time!) or you can try to remove the fat by letting the fat come to the top while the broth is hot, and taking it off with a ladle, very slowly and patiently.  Life is even easier if you have a skimmer, which separates the fat.

Very helpful for removing some of the chicken fat

• Also, neat trick if you don't have a skimmer, you can use a paper towel to soak up some of the fat once it comes to the top.  I used the ladle + paper towel method, with pretty successful results.
• Cook the noodles in a separate pot.  They won't need to cook for too long.
• Return the broth to the pot, add about 1 cup of water, the cup of celery and carrot, and chicken bullion cube.  Simmer for about 20 minutes or until veggies are tender.
• Almost there! Add in the cooked noodles, chicken, salt and pepper to taste and let simmer just enough that all is heated through.

Whew! Done!  Time to eat some delicious soup, store some soup, and put it into lunch sized containers for a hearty noon time meal.

This has to be my most favorite time consuming recipe, what is the thing you will slave in the kitchen for?

-Best wishes for a wonderful Tuesday