Classic Chicken Noodle Soup

Maybe I should call this "Really Good Chicken, Broth, and a Boatload of Noodles."  Seriously, this was really good, and it was my fault about the mega-noodle-ness.  The original recipe called for about a pound of regular, flat, wide egg noodles, and I thought that using a pound of these tiny fideo noodles would be the same.  Umm.... nope!  Oh well.  It was still really tasty.  This pic is of the leftovers, so they absorbed even more broth and expanded a bit.  We gave half of this soup away to another fam, and there was still a lot left for us, and one bowl for me to have for lunch the next day.  To my leftovers bowl, I added the juice of half a lemon.  It was SO GOOD with that lemon in there, I just loved it.  Chicken soup over here often has lemon in it (at least at this one restaurant......)  I love lemon-chicken soup.  Love, love, love it. 

To clarify, the original recipe doesn't contain lemon... I just randomly added it to my bowl of leftovers.  Also, I love lemon chicken soup.  And, this soup had a ton of noodles.  But it doesn't have to be that way, if you follow the original recipe. 

Classic Chicken Noodle Soup
adapted from Mel's Kitchen Cafe
Makes a ton- probably over 10 servings

For Chicken and Broth:3-4 pound whole chicken, neck and giblets removed
6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
3 stalks celery, chopped in large chunks
3-4 carrots, cut in large chunks
1 onion, chopped in large pieces

Soup:
12 cups low-sodium chicken broth
4 stalks celery, chopped
1 pound carrots, chopped
1/2-1 teaspoons salt (to taste, depending on the broth)
1/2 teaspoon pepper
16-20 ounces egg noodles

1.  Rinse the chicken, removing the neck and giblets.  Place the chicken in a slow cooker and add the other broth ingredients. Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours.  Carefully remove the chicken and set aside in a large bowl until the chicken is cool enough to handle.  Meanwhile, remove and discard the large solids from the chicken broth and strain the chicken broth into a large pot.

2.  To the same pot, add another 12 cups chicken broth, the chopped vegetables and the salt and pepper.  Bring the mixture to a simmer and cook, covered, for 12-15 minutes, until the vegetables are slightly tender (they’ll cook more when the noodles cook).  Taste the broth and add salt and pepper to taste, if needed.  Add the noodles and cook according to package directions at a rolling boil.  While the noodles are cooking, take the chicken off the bones and shred into bite-size pieces.  Stir the chicken back into the soup, and serve!

**This post and photos are property of http://dishingwithdish.blogspot.com**