Is it cold enough for you? Are you tired of snow by now? Do you bundle up in front of a warm and cozy fire just like we are in my neck of the woods? If so, then you need some rib-sticking comfort food.
Nothing satisfies the soul during these chilly wintery days than good old-fashioned chicken soup. Here’s a super easy Homemade Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup that will have you eating it straight out of the pot! This hearty chunky soup is chock-full of chicken, vegetables, and thick egg noodles.
In my house, we like creamy soups just as much as broth-based soups, and this soup can be prepared with or without milk, whichever you prefer…both have tremendous flavor!
Comfort food just doesn’t get any better than this. And if you’re not chilled to the bone like most of us are during winter, you’ll still love this fantastic soup.
Make-ahead magic
One of the tricks to making homemade soup is to make and freeze chicken broth ahead of time. With that done, all you have to do is take the broth out of the freezer to thaw, pour it into a tall pot, add the ingredients, and cook for no more than half an hour.
A second tip: When you make your own chicken broth, chop up the chicken that you used to make the broth and freeze it as well. Thaw it out while you’re thawing out the broth or just throw it in the pot and it will thaw out in the hot soup. You can even use an inexpensive baked chicken in most grocery stores too.
This soup is easy, delicious and healthy. Minimal fat is consumed in this soup…unless you devour the entire pot of soup, which you will be tempted to do!
Homemade Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup
Ingredients
1 gallon homemade chicken broth (see accompanying recipe)
4 cups of cooked chicken, diced or shredded
3 cups fresh mushrooms, chopped into ½” pieces, do not mince
½ stick of butter
2 cups sliced carrots
2 cups sliced celery, included leaves
1 cup fresh Italian parsley, minced
2 cups frozen green peas
½ to 1 bag of thick egg noodles (I use Reame’s brand frozen noodles, but any quality brand will do)
4 cups whole milk (or more for if you like your soup less thick)
½ cup flour
½ tsp. sage
½ tsp. thyme
½ tsp. pepper
2 Tbsp. chicken boullion
Instructions
Heat the chicken broth on low to medium heat. (Recipe follows)
Saute’ mushrooms in the butter
While mushrooms are sautéing, add the diced chicken to the chicken broth
Add the carrots, celery, Italian parsley
Add the mushrooms after sautéing
Add the sage, thyme, bouillon, and pepper
In a container with lid, mix 1 cup milk with ½ cup flour; tightly attach the lid and shake vigorously
Add this milk/flour mixture to the pot
Add the rest of the milk (use more milk if you like it less thick)
Add the egg noodles
Add the green peas
Cook for 15 minutes on medium high until the noodles are cooked to your texture preference
Homemade Chicken Broth
Makes about 4 gallons
This is the real thing, and totally worth the effort. Fortunately, the recipe produces gallons of delicious broth
Ingredients
One 6-pound chicken (hen)
1 package (beef) soup bones—if you can get them
1 4-pound beef roast
3 carrots, cut in thirds
1 large onion, quartered
3 celery stalks with leaves, cut into thirds
1/4 bunch of Italian parsley, chopped
Salt
Instructions
Clean chicken and empty the contents of the cavity inside. Cut up into large pieces for faster cooking
Cut up all of your veggies
Cut your beef roast up into 2 or 3 large sections
Fill a large, deep (five gallon) pot half way full of water. (Make sure that you have enough room to put the rest of the ingredients in without overflowing)
Put all of the ingredients into the pot of water
Chop fresh Italian parsley and put into the pot
Bring up the heat to high and get it to a low, rolling boil then immediately lower the heat and simmer until the beef is tender
During this simmer, periodically strain and remove the junk that rises to the top
Simmer two to three hours, then remove all the ingredients from the broth with a hand strainer
With very thin tea towels covering a colander/strainer, pour the broth through them into another pot. (NOTE: this is a lot of work and usually needs two people to do this. Be careful, the broth is very hot while you do this!)
Continue to strain into clean tea towels two more times until the broth is completely clear and free of any ingredient remains
Taste, add more salt to taste.
If you make this the night before, refrigerate and then the next day, skim off any fat from the top (it will solidify in the fridge and be very easy to remove). Freeze unused portions for later use.
Link to the article content…
http://acreagelife.com/articles/nothing-warms-well-homemade-creamy-chicken-noodle-soup