Chicken Noodle Soup

My poor Ed has come down with some sort of sickness, so I decided to make him some chicken noodle soup from scratch. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go back to canned soup now. This stuff turned out downright amazing. I combined a recipe for chicken soup from the January 2010 issue of Martha Stewart Living and this recipe by Tyler Florence and came up with this. Tasty tasty. Comfort food at its best.

NOTE: I have edited this a bit since I first posted it. Tweaked the quantities to make more soup happen! It’s great reheated. I’ve also made a few variations since I originally posted it: adding leftover spiced rice or dumplings instead of noodles, adding leeks, etc. I’ll post the dumpling recipe soon…

Chicken Noodle Soup

Adapted from Martha Stewart Living, January 2010, and Tyler Florence

Yield: About 8 servings

INGREDIENTS

2 lbs chicken thighs (about 5 thighs) (frozen or thawed, doesn’t really matter)
16 cups water
1 1/2 tablespoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
Fresh ground black pepper to taste
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, smashed
3 celery stalks, sliced in half lengthwise then chopped
3 carrots, peeled and cut into rounds
1 small jalapeno pepper, cut into rounds (optional)
6-8 oz. wide egg noodles (or rice, or dumplings, or whatever you’d like)

DIRECTIONS

1. Bring chicken, water, salt, pepper, bay leaf and thyme to a boil. Add onions, celery and garlic. Reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, 30 minutes.
2. Remove chicken thighs. Add carrots. Simmer, partially covered, 30 minutes.
3. While soup is simmering, remove chicken from the bone by using two forks. Pull into bite-sized pieces.
4. When 30 minutes is up, add egg noodles and jalapeno pepper. Taste broth and add more salt or pepper if it’s needed. I added a bit more salt. When in doubt, add more salt.
5. Turn up the heat a bit and cook, uncovered, until noodles are tender — about 10-12 minutes.
6. Add chicken back into soup and stir until it’s heated.

I love how easy it is to make soup!