It’s been a while since we’ve posted a new recipe and we have a good reason why. Lindsey has been traveling for work, living the life of a carefree young girl when one day she breaks her family’s heart with – I’m moving to Dallas! Say what? We’re sorry, we blacked out for just a minute and thought we heard you say you were moving to Dallas. Moving to Dallas? Yes, it’s true!
So we’ve been crying in our Cheerios, pie plate, pizza pan, casserole dish, crock pot and anything else you can fill with food to comfort our breaking hearts. So we thought it very fitting to revive our blogging with the king of comfort food – Chicken Noodle Soup. This is a tried and true family favorite to have ready for the busy family on nights of sports practices and games. It couldn’t be any easier and really doesn’t consist of any cooking. It’s just gathering ingredients and tossing in a crockpot.
It is not uncommon for us to make this hearty soup 2-3 times a month!
Easy Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup – Blended Kitchen
Start with a rotisserie chicken. Just get the plain or original flavoring. The big ones at Sams or Costco are great because they are so meaty. The smaller ones from the local grocery store work just as well also.
While still warm, remove the skin and take the meat off the bones. We use it all! Breast, the top layers of the legs and the really yummy meaty part of the thigh. Chop it up into “smaller than bite size pieces.” It’s very easy to do, so don’t be intimidated – just take off your rings and dig in.
Place the chopped up chicken pieces in your crock pot. You can also use a soup pot on the stove if you want, but we’re fans of the “set it and forget it” crock pot.
We use a boxed chicken broth, canned (or fresh, if you’re feeling ambitious) are fine too. Basically, you just need enough broth to cover the chicken and this is a great size to start with.
Pour the chicken broth into the crock base and use enough to completely cover the chicken pieces.
Using the same container, fill it with water and pour enough water to raise the liquid in the crock about an inch. For us, it’s usually about 1/2 to 3/4 of the box. This will vary depending on how much chicken you use and how big your pot is. Just eyeball it and know you can’t screw it up!
These are the veggies we throw in. Why the big pieces of celery and onion? A certain person in our house WON’T eat “the green stuff” and another CAN’T eat onions. We’ll let you figure out that puzzle. So, to make everyone happy, we keep the celery and onions large enough so that we can easily remove them before serving. You need that flavor in there so you can chop them up like normal soups or keep large to remove if your house is weird like ours. The one thing we all agree on is carrots so those get chopped up pretty small so they soften and add a pretty color.
Mix all the veggies in with the chicken and broth.
For the seasoning, we add a pouch of soup mix. If you have a favorite brand, use it! We use whatever we happen to have in the pantry.
Open that pouch up and empty the contents into the crock. We love noodles so we tend to use the extra noodle flavor. Whatever you want to use is fine!
This is what it looks like after it has cooked on high about 3 hours. You can also cook it on low, depending on your schedule. The main thing is to get the flavors to marry and the veggies to soften. Cutting up the pieces smaller will ensure they will soften in time for dinner.
Now this is when it gets GOOD! We love Amish noodles and have several recipes we use them in. You can find these in the pasta aisle.
For this soup, we use the narrow style. If you can find them, there’s an even smaller size which is perfect too! Feel free to use a wider noodle if you want but it will be more “dumpling like”. The flavor will be the same though – delicious!
We usually do a “handful” of noodles. Eyeball it and know you can add more if you see it’s not noodley enough for you. If you like a more brothy soup, use fewer noodles. It’s chicken noodle soup though, so we add in lots!
Give it a quick stir and put the lid back on for about a 30-60 minutes. Just enough time to soak up the goodness. If you see the soup is soaking up all the broth because you added too many noodles, just add a little broth or water to the soup to thin it out. Easy fix! No worries!
Look at this homemade goodness! Now is when you pick out the onions and celery for those certain people.
Here’s the recipe:
Ingredients
1 Rotisserie chicken – skin removed and meat cut off and chopped into bite size pieces
Celery
1 Onion
Carrots
Chicken broth
1 pouch chicken soup mix
Amish noodles
Water if needed to add to the soup
Salt and Pepper if desired
Directions
Remove the skin and chicken from the rotisserie chicken. Discard the skin and chop up the chicken into bite size pieces. Place chicken in crock pot base and cover completely with chicken broth. Add water to raise the liquid to about an inch higher than the chicken. Add vegetables and chicken soup package. Cook on high approx 3 hours or low 6.
About an hour before serving, add the Amish noodles. Stir noodles into soup and replace cover. Reduce heat to low and let the noodles soak up the goodness. If you notice the soup needs more liquid, add more broth or water ~ 3/4 cup at a time.
With leftovers, you will most likely need to add a little liquid when reheating. As it sits in the fridge overnight, the noodles will continue to soak up the liquid.
Nom. nom. nom.
