CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP

budgetbytes.com

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 45 minutes

Ingredients
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 medium yellow onion
3 cloves garlic
1/2 lb. carrots
1/2 bunch celery
2 split chicken breast (bone-in)
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 Tablespoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 whole bay leaf
10-15 cranks cracked pepper
1 Tablespoon salt
6 oz. egg noodles

Instructions
1. Dice the onion and mince the garlic.  Begin cooking them in a large pot over medium heat with 2 Tbsp of olive oil.

2. While the onion and garlic are sautéing, wash and slice the carrots and celery.  Add them to the pot and continue to sauté.

3. Pull the skin and any excess fat from the chicken breasts.  Add the breasts to the pot along wit the bay leaf, basil, parsley, thyme and black pepper.  Add eight cups of water.  Cover, bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for one hour.  Make sure the pot continues to simmer for the whole hour.  If the heat is turned too low and it is not bubbling away, the chicken will not shred easily.

4. After one hour of simmering, remove the chicken from the pot.  Using two forks, pull the meat from the bone and shred it slightly.  Season the broth with salt.  Begin with one teaspoon and add more to your liking.  I used one tablespoon total (or three teaspoons).  The flavor of the broth will really pop once the salt is added.

5. Add the noodles to the pot, turn the heat up to high, and boil the noodles until tender (about 7 minutes).  Return the shredded chicken to the pot, add two more cups of water (to account for evaporation and absorption from the noodles).  Taste and season again with salt if needed (I didn't need to).  Serve hot!

My notes:
I used the meat from a rotisserie chicken instead of the bone in chicken.  I also added chicken broth at the end instead of plain water.  I made the noodles from scratch.  Recipe below.

Homemade egg noodles

1 egg
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon water
3/4 cup flour

beat the egg, water and salt together then add flour.  Make a ball then roll super thin and cut in to strips.  Cover with a clean dish towel and let sit to dry or add to soup immediately.  Boil the soup about 15 minutes to cook noodles.