Chicken noodle soup for the Halloween souls!

 

Chicken noodle soup for the Halloween souls!

 

Typically my Halloween here in Florida consists of two chairs, a table, eight pounds worth of candy and some lively bantering with the neighbors. No doorbell ringing, only driveway camping.  Let’s not forget about the 2 bottles of wine.

And then we had chicken soup. I loved this soup. Never ever will I be tempted by Campbell’s chicken noodle soup again. Really easy to make. I found it on the Food Network website. I didn’t want a crock-pot soup.  I want this soup when I am sick.

I tweaked it, of course, adding red pepper flakes to give it a bit of a bite. I used rotisserie chicken – the entire chicken.  I added way more carrots and celery than it actually calls for! More stock was added and I didn’t have a chance to make my own for this so I used canned low sodium Swansons for the liquid. The recipe as it is written doesn’t call for any flavor melding time so I switched things up and made it a little differently than what the recipe says to do. I actually had this all made up without the noodles and sitting on the stove lightly simmering and sometimes not, while we were giving out free sugar to willing victims.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Recipe courtesy Tyler Florence

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 medium carrots, cut diagonally into 1/2-inch-thick slices – OR MORE!
  • 2 celery ribs, halved lengthwise, and cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices – OR MORE!
  • 4 fresh thyme sprigs
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 2 quarts chicken stock – I used about 12 cups of stock!
  • 8 ounces dried wide egg noodles – I used the No-Yolk variety – they stand up well to liquid.
  • 1 1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken - Or a whole rotisserie chicken.
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper -  and a pinch of red pepper flakes
  • 1 handful fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped – oops, I forgot this…

Directions

Place a soup pot over medium heat and coat with the oil. Add the onion, garlic, carrots, celery, thyme and bay leaf. Cook and stir for about 6 minutes, until the vegetables are softened but not browned. Pour in the chicken stock and bring the liquid to a boil. Add the noodles and simmer for 5 minutes until tender. Fold in the chicken, and continue to simmer for another couple of minutes to heat through; season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with chopped parsley before serving.

I followed the onion, garlic, carrots, celery, thyme and bayleaf part really well. and the stock. I then added the chicken and turned the heat down to low and let it sit there and gently heat. All the ingredients melded very well in about a 2 hour time frame.  When we had packed everything up and went inside I added the noodles allowing them to cook for about 15 minutes and they turned out perfectly. I did not *boil* the noodles in the liquid.

I am sure the original way works great if you need to do this is a hurry – I simply wanted to be able to “hold” dinner at a near ready stage as well as make sure it had a ton of flavour when I did serve it. I accomplished both goals near perfectly!

We ended up having the soup with some crusty bread with butter and it was thoroughly enjoyed. It was voted a keeper!

Can you believe he almost got away with taking all the leftover soup home with him… almost. I think a double batch might be in order next time.

Organic. Think organic veggies when making soups.  More about that later. Meanwhile, back to thinking about tomorrows dinner..