(Original post August 21, 2012 @ mtable.wordpress.com.)
If you frequent my home page, you'll know that I had an ear issue this past week. Let's just say I haven't had my ears professionally cleaned in 32 years. Happily, this is mostly resolved because earaches are not good times! But, just as my ears were clearing, my husband came down with a tummy bug. He's better now, and so far my son and I haven't caught it. (Fingers crossed!) While he was sick, the only thing he wanted to eat was soup, so, being the kind and loving wife I am, I went out twice the first day and bought him Chicken Noodle Soup. On my second outting, I realized we were wasting money. I could make soup just as tasty and healthier to boot. And so I did.
Difficulty: 3 (1 = Easy, 10 = Really Hard)
There are actually two versions of the recipe on this page. I went with the crockpot version because it seemed easier, and I'm all for simplicity when I cook.
- Yup, looks like soup to me!
This recipe calls for "one 15 oz can of whole kernel corn, drained." While I tend to stay true to the recipes I use for this blog, I deviated a bit when it came to the corn. My husband and I love fresh corn on the cob, but neither he nor I particularly enjoy corn when it's cooked into things. So I left it out. Feel free to put corn in your soup. I'll allow it.
I gathered the ingredients together and prepped my veggies the night before.
- I don't normally take many pictures during prep, but this looked kind of pretty.
I eyeballed the measurements when chopping, so this is probably slightly more than half a cup of each. The plan was to throw everything into the crockpot when my son got me up at the butt-crack of dawn the following morning. And he did. He woke me up around 6 a.m., so I started crocking around 6:30. The instructions are short and sweet, "Add everything but the noodles and cooked chicken to the crock pot on Low for 5-6 hours, the last hour turn on High, and add noodles and chicken." Simple right? Perhaps too simple for me. The only seasonings are salt and pepper. I really had to restrain myself from putting in garlic or onion powder or basil or... I think you get the point.
For the chicken, the recipe calls for "2 cups cooked chicken chopped or 2 cans canned cooked chicken." I try to avoid canned food in general, plus canned chicken is kind of gross. I could have bought a rotisserie chicken, but I opted to cook my own. Since there are no chicken cooking instructions, I made up my own. I baked six boneless skinless thighs for about 45ish minutes on 300. I wanted them almost done, so they wouldn't overcook in the crockpot.
- Seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and basil.
Around 11:00 I added the cooked, diced chicken and the egg noodles into the crock pot and turned it up to high. At this point I also added an extra cup of chicken broth (I used six cups total instead of the recommended five) because I was worried the noodles would soak up all the the liquid. This happened to me on my last crock pot soup adventure. That batch of lentil soup came out more like soggy mush than soup. Anyhoo, an hour later, I had soup!
- Left: Mine - Right: The Quilted Ladies
It was really good though I suppose it would be difficult to make bad chicken noodle soup. It was exactly what my husband's crampy upset stomach needed. I'm glad now that I restrained myself and didn't add any extra seasoning because the flavor of the broth was perfect. The green onions and the white onions along with a bit of salt and pepper gave it the perfect flavor. The vegetables were soft, but not mushy. Next time I cook this I would add more carrots and celery. We like a lot of veggies in our soup. My husband felt the chicken was a little bland. Either I didn't season it well enough when I baked it, or the seasoning came off in the broth. Either way, this is probably my fault, not the recipes. Still, this wasn't overly noticeable since the broth was so flavorful. The only real issue was that the egg noodles were slightly mushy. I don't think they needed the full hour on high in the crock pot. I would say put the chicken in for the last hour and the noodles in for maybe the last 30 minutes.
Overall this was a really good chicken noodle soup recipe. I'd make this one again.
- Mmmmmmm.
Final Rating: 7 (1 = Bad, 10 = Delicious!)
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