Chilled to the bone? This recipe will warm you right up.......

This recipe is by far one of my families' favorites.  I make this recipe alot, I usually make this anytime I need to take a meal to someone.  It is comfort food, and when your sick or have just had a baby, you need comfort food.  I just made it for my neice Aly a few weeks ago when she was sick and all she wanted was my chicken noodle soup.  I usually make a huge pot, so I have some for my family, some to take to someone and usually I have some to freeze as well. This recipe will make a really big batch,  so if you don't want that much just half it.  I have worked and worked and adjusted and adjusted to try to get this just perfect, the problem is that I'm the kind of cook that sometimes doesn't really stick to the recipe and sometimes I try a new kind of noodle or some other ingredient so it usually doesn't turn out the exact same, but I think that is what makes it so fun to cook, you can take a recipe and truely make it your own.  I usually use an old fashioned egg noodle, you can get these dry at Kohlers, they also carry Grandmas homemade frozen noodles, these go on sale sometimes and I will use those, but they take along time to cook, but they aren't dry so they don't soak up as much of the liquid.  I order noodles that are an Amish Kluski noodle on Amazon by the case, I just like the length, and width of these and they are acutally cheaper by the case, but the others work fine.  I usually make rolls or breadsticks to serve with my soups, alot of times I will use Rhodes frozen dough for the rolls, and if I have alot of time and energy I'll make the rolls from the Cinnamon roll dough that is on this blog, but usually I just make breadsticks because they are really easy and fast so that recipe is just below as well.

Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup

4 large chicken breasts w/bones and skin

1 medium onion, chopped fine

8 stalks of celery, 3 of them chopped fine

5 medium carrotts, chopped fine

4 cups chicken broth or stock

2 large cans cream chicken soup

2 packages kluski egg noodles

Salt, pepper and chicken bullion to taste, I usually use 3/4 tsp sea salt, 1/8 tsp fresh ground pepper and probably 3 to 4 tsp of bullion, just depends on how much water you have to add.

Boil the chicken breasts just until cooked through in a large pot of water, usually mine are still a little pink by the bone,  if you over cook the chicken it will be tough, this water will be the stock for your soup.  Once the chicken is done, take it out and place on a plate to cool enough to cut up or shred into peices.  I prefer to just kind of shred it with my fingers into small chunks.  I use a strainer and pour the stock through it to remove any of the fat and little foreign matter(for lack of a better word) from the juice.  Then melt about 2 TBS butter in the pan, add in chopped onion and just saute it until the onion is really aromatic, about 2 minutes, this just releases all the flavor of the onion and gives the soup a really good flavor, add the chopped celery and carrotts and simmer for another minute.  Add your stock, the extra broth and the whole celery stocks back into your pot(The extra celery stocks just add extra flavor, just take them out once they become soft) Bring this mixture to a boil and simmer for about a half an hour, then add the noodles keep simmering until they are done.  Usually you do have to add more water or broth, as the noodles depending on which ones you use, do soak up quite a bit of the broth, don't over cook them, they will cook more as they sit in the liquid.  Add shredded chicken, and cream of chicken soup, mix well and let soup come to a simmer one more, then just turn heat to low until served.  This soup is almost better the next day after all the flavors have blended together all night in the fridge.  Sometimes I will make this in the evening to serve the next day, it is easy to warm up on the stove or just put it in your crock pot on low and then when it starts to simmer, turn the heat to warm.  ENJOY!!!

Note:  I chop my vegetables, my family don't like big chunks of onions or the other vegis, so this works well and is very kid friendly, however, some do like the chunks, so just adjust this to your liking.  Also some won't want to use the chicken with the skin and bones, I do, I won't make it any other way.  The bones and skins give the broth its flavor and keep the chicken moist.  So adjust this if you must, but I promise it won't be as good.