Ingredients:

2 T butter
1 lb boneless skinless chicken, white and/or dark meat
1 1/2 cup onion, chopped, either white or sweet
1 cup celery, chopped, include some delicious leaves
3 slender carrots, peeled and sliced on the diagonal into bite sized pieces
6 cups unsalted chicken stock
1 bay leaf
1 t thyme
1/4 t black ground pepper
1 pinch of ground cloves
1 goodly pinch of saffron
Salt to taste
1 T fresh parsley, or 1 t dried parsley
3 oz medium egg noodles (or 6 oz for thick stewy soup)

Spoon Mage™ Note:

You can prepped all the ingredients yourself or you can take advantage of all or some of the grocer’s conveniently prepped for you items – pre-chopped veggies gets this soul soothing soup ready in no time at all. Nobody will judge you, it’s still homemade. The entire soup is done in under a couple hours even if you chop the veggies your own self.

Make the soup even faster using one pound of meat off a cooked bird. Sauté the chicken in the butter for a couple minutes anyway. Then add the veggies.

For the real deal made from bone-in chicken to make the stock yourself soup, click here. This recipe does not include noodles, but there is no reason why you couldn’t just toss a couple handfuls in there at the end. That would be pure awesome.

Directions:

Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Sauté the chicken, turning frequently, until each piece is fork tender. They will be cooked and browned a little. Remove to a plate.

Add the onions, celery, and carrots. Sauté for about 5 minutes, or until the onions soften. Stir frequently to loosen up some of the good chickeny brown stuff at the bottom of the pot.

While the veggies cook, shred the chicken into 1 inch long pieces – or smaller if you like them that way.

When the veggies are ready, return the chicken to the pot, stir well.

Add the chicken stock, bay leaf, thyme, ground black pepper, cloves, and saffron. If you like to salt things add a little here, but not too much, ok? You will have the opportunity to taste and adjust the seasonings later and once salt is in, it cannot be removed. The idea with salt in a soup is to accent flavors, not overpower.

Bring to a hard simmer, cover, and reduce temperature to a medium simmer. Cook for a good 30 minutes. Stir when you remember to do so. Taste the broth and adjust the seasonings. You might want to put a couple shakes of hot red pepper flakes to serve as the accent for the flavors, or a shake of Tabasco. They both do the job of salt but offer more interest in background flavor without adding spicy heat.

Prep the parsley and measure the noodles. Add them to the pot, recover, and cook for another 20-30 minutes, or until the noodles are done cooking… or until you remember to check them.

If it’s too early for dinner, turn off the stove and let it sit covered while you do whatever you want. Turn the heat back on 10 minutes before dinner. Get the soup good and hot.

Taste and adjust the seasonings – sure, why not again? It’s delicious. If you were a little heavy handed with the noodles, you may need to add more stock or water or just call it Chicken Noodle Stew. I understand the love of a good noodle.

Serve as is with a good roll or a gooey toasted cheese sandwich.