Chicken & Noodle Soup with Vegetables
Submitted by mbille
Old-fashioned chicken noodle soup simmered from scratch with a whole chicken, gizzards, egg noodles, and fresh vegetables. A 3-hour Sunday supper that feeds 14 hungry souls.
YIELD
14 servingsPREP
20 minCOOK
3 hrsREADY
3 hrsThis isn’t the quick weeknight version. This is the full-production, Sunday-afternoon, fill-the-house-with-the-best-smell-on-earth chicken noodle soup. A whole chicken, chicken backs, and gizzards simmer for two hours in a big kettle to build the kind of broth you simply cannot get from a box.
Once the broth is strained and skimmed, fresh carrots, green beans, diced chicken, and thinly sliced gizzards go back in with egg noodles and green peas for the final stretch. The vegetables stay firm, the noodles soak up the golden broth, and every bowl is a meal in itself.
Fourteen servings means this feeds a crowd, or gives you leftovers for days. Serve it with buttered toast, hot rolls, or a hunk of crusty bread.
Chef Tips
- Skim the scum as it forms during the first boil. That gray foam is proteins rising to the surface. Removing it gives you a cleaner, clearer broth.
- Don’t overcook the fresh vegetables. Add them to the strained broth and cook just until pleasantly firm. Mushy carrots and limp green beans have no place in a soup this good.
- Use the leg and thigh meat for the soup. Dark meat holds up better in long-simmered dishes. Save the breast meat for sandwiches or chicken salad if you like.
Ingredients
Directions
Place the whole chicken or the chicken pieces in a heavy 6-quart kettle with the water, onion stuck with cloves, leek, carrot, 1 tablespoon salt, and peppercorns.
Bring to a boil and skim off any scum that forms on top.
Reduce the heat and simmer for 2 hours.
Correct the seasoning. If you are using chicken parts, cook until they are tender 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Remove the chicken, skim excess fat from the broth, and then remove the vegetables.
Pour the broth into a container, wash out the kettle, and then return the broth to it.
Add the cut vegetables, the meat from the legs and thighs cut into small dice, and the gizzards thinly sliced.
Bring to a boil again and cook just until the vegetables begin to tenderize and are pleasantly firm.
Add the noodles (increase the amount if you like a very thick soup) and peas, and boil for 5 to 9 minutes or until they are cooked.
Serve in heated soup plates or bowls and sprinkle with some chopped parsley.
This deliciously filling soup is ideal for a Sunday supper, accompanied by buttered toast or hot rolls, perhaps followed by a salad or some excellent cheese and a bottle of red wine.
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