HOMEMADE CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP (serves 6)
One 3-4 lb chicken
4 cups chicken broth
4 cups water
2 ribs celery, cut into halves
1 large onion, cut in quarters
1 carrot, peeled, cut into halves
1/4 cup parsley sprigs
1 tsp each salt & pepper
1 1/2 cups sliced celery
1 cup chopped onion
2 carrots, cut into 1" slices
1 tsp each salt & pepper
8 oz spaghetti, broken into 2" pieces or 6 oz egg noodles
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Rinse the chicken & discard the gizzard. Combine the chicken, broth,w ater, 2 ribs celery, 1onion, 1 carrot, parsley sprigs, 1 tsp salt & pepper in a stockpot. Bring to a boil over high heat; reduce heat. Simmer 45 minutes or until the chicken is tender.
Remove the chicken to a platter, reserving the broth. Cool slightly. Chop the chicken, discarding the skin & bones. Strain the reserved broth through a fine mesh colander into a bowl, discarding the vegetables. Skim the broth. Rinse the stockpot to remove any fat.
Return the broth to the stockpot. Bring the broth to a simmer. Add 1 1/2 cups celery, 1 cup onion, 2 carrots, 1 tsp each salt & pepper. Simmer 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the pasta & increase the heat to medium. Cook 8-10 minutes or until the pasta is tender. Stir in the chicken & parsley. May add additional water if needed for the desired consistency. Simmer just until heated through.~~ Romve the noodles from the soup & store separately in the refrigerator if not using up all the soup.~~

Thanks Ginger -- it's nice to know I can always count on you!!

We're suppose to have another snow storm come through this afternoon and tonight followed by arctic air. Our high on Friday should only reach zero. This soup will taste really good as I hibernate for the weekend.

Thanks,
Janet

I'd hibernate too with that kind of weather. I hope you like the soup & as you know, adjust the seasonings to your taste but it's a good, basic recipe. Stay warm!

I make this recipe often. The rivels and the diced hard boiled eggs in this to make it a very different chicken soup.

Amish Chicken Corn Soup

Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 2 hours
Ingredients:

* Soup:
* 1 (4- to 5-pound) chicken, cut into 8 pieces
* 2-1/2 to 3 quarts water, or as needed
* 1 large onion
* 8 to 10 black peppercorns
* 2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
* 8 to 10 threads of saffron, or 1/4 teaspoon crushed saffron (optional)
* 10 ears of corn, or 4 cups frozen corn kernels
* 3 celery stalks, diced with leaves
* 6 ounces wide egg noodles, packaged egg barley, or Rivels (see below)
* Freshly ground white pepper
* 2/3 cup finely chopped fresh parsley
* 2 hard-cooked eggs, chopped
* .
* Rivels:
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* Pinch of ground white pepper
* 1 large egg, beaten
* 3/4 to 1 cup all-purpose flour, as needed

Preparation:
To Make Soup: Place chicken5 in soup pot with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and skim foam as it rises to the surface. When it has subsided, add onion, peppercorns6, salt, and saffron7. Simmer gently but steadily, partly covered, for about 1-1/2 hours or until tender.

Remove chicken. Trim and discard bones and skin, and onion. Let soup cool, then skim fat from surface. Tear meat into spoonable pieces and return to soup.

Cut kernels from 4 ears of corn, then grate kernels from remaining 6 ears, catching all milk and pulp on foil or waxed paper. If using frozen kernels, puree half in a food processor or blender, adding a little soup if liquid is needed. Add whole kernels and grated or pureed corn to soup8 along with celery and noodles9, egg barley, or rivels.

Simmer gently until corn and noodles or rivels are cooked. Add salt and white pepper to taste. Stir in parsley and serve, garnishing each portion with chopped hard-cooked egg10.

This soup freezes well, but do that before adding the noodles, barley, or dumplings. Prepare those when reheating soup. To prevent scorching during reheating, place the pot over an asbestos mat or on other insulating plate.

To Make Rivels: Stir salt and pepper into egg and add 2/3 cup flour and beat. Keep adding and beating in flour until mixture is crumbly but a bit sticky. Rub between hands or pinch off pea-size pieces and drop them into simmering soup. Cover loosely and let cook for about 15 minutes or until rivels solidify. To make the rivels ahead of time, cook them in lightly salted boiling water or some extra soup stock and then drain and reserve them to be reheated in the soup just before it is served.

Yield: 8 to 10 first-course servings; 4 to 6 main-course servings

Recipe Source: The Whole World Loves Chicken Soup11 by Mimi Sheraton (Warner Books)

Here's my recipe which is pretty well a standard but I like to roast the bones, the garlic and onion when making the stock.

Here

CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP

Soup Ingredients:
Homemade chicken stock - about 2 quarts
2 carrots - diced
2 stalks celery - diced
1 leek - diced
1 cup diced rutabaga or orange squash
1/2 cup fine soup noodles
salt & pepper
oil or chicken fat

Ratio of solids to stock should be about 2 cups stock to 1 lb chopped vegetables. Add any more chopped veg if you don't have enough.

Stock ingredients:

1 meaty chicken carcass or piece of whole chicken
2 heads of garlic
1 onion - cut in half
celery stick - sliced
1 carrot sliced
fresh thyme - large sprig
1 bay leaf
black pepper & salt

MAKING STOCK:

1. Early in day or day before:
Preheat oven to 350F. Cut top off heads of garlic. Place on roasting pan together with chicken carcass and sliced onion and drizzle a bit of oil over top of all.
(I had two carcasses to roast as they are sold this way in pairs at our supermarket. I also added a couple of beef bones.)
Roast in oven about 40 minutes or until all is toasted.

2. Put bones into a very large pot. Squeeze one head of the buttery garlic cloves into the stock pot, saving the other head of garlic for adding to the soup. Add the rest of the stock ingredients and fill pot with water to cover. Grind in fresh pepper. Bring to boil, turn down heat, put on lid and simmer for a couple of hours.
Skim off any gray residue that rises to the top.

3. Afterward, strain the solid debris from the stock ---(REMEMBER you're saving the stock so don't pour it down the sink - as has been done LOL !).
I look through the solids and pick out the meaty chicken pieces to save for the soup. Throw away all the rest of the solid material.
Here I let it cool and refrigerate until next day when it's easy to remove solid fat from top. Otherwise continue to make soup.

MAKING THE SOUP:

1. Sauté the chopped ingredients in a frypan in a TBS of chicken fat or oil until lightly golden. Squeeze out the buttery cloves from the 2nd head of garlic and add to pan.

2. Put soup ingredients including small bits of chicken into large saucepan and add an appropriate amount of stock - about double the amount of liquid to vegetables.
Put on lid and simmer with lid on for about an hour. Add soup noodles during last 5 minutes.

3. Check seasoning, add salt.

SharonCb

I love a good chicken soup, and all the recipes here look really good, I have just a couple of tips to share with you.
Peelings and cut offs do not have to be discarded: throw them in the pot you are making your stock in - tons of flavor to be gained!!
I have also learned by experience that if you BOIL the chicken, the meat can lose a lot of its flavor, and can even dry out. I cut the chicken into pieces to help speed up the cooking process, fill the pot with cold water, bring up to medium heat, turn down to simmer until the meat is cooked through.
And dont forget to skim off the scum frequently.

I like to make this one, it's a little different. I came up with it myself.

Chicken tortellini soup

1/2 of a whole chicken, boiled and deboned
broth from above chicken

I usually make a recipe of this and use the other meat in other recipes, like chicken quesadillas.

take the chicken and about 1 quart of broth and put it into a stockpot or dutch oven pan. Add the following and boil over med heat until tender:

2 cubes of chicken flavor bouillon
1 large bell pepper, green or red, cut into 1" pieces
1 large onion, diced
2 bay leaves
1 tsp dried whole rosemary leaves (crush with your fingers before putting in)
1/2 tsp dried oregano leaves
1/2 tsp thyme leaves, crushed
a small dash of poultry seasoning
1 or 2 carrots, cut into slices and peeled
1 med potato, peeled and diced (you don't want too much)
1/4 cup frozen whole kernel corn
1/4 cup frozen green beans
1 large tomato diced, or 1/2 cup canned diced tomato

Simmer this together until everything's tender. If it looks too dry, add a couple cups more broth. You want it to really look a little bit too liquidy and thin at this point.The next ingredient will take up some of the excess liquid when cooking.
When it's all cooked together and tender, add:

8 ounces of the dry parmesian cheese filled tortellini,
(about 1 1/2 cups)

and simmer until the noodles are just tender (al dente). If you cook it on the stove too long, the tortellinis will fall apart. Serve immediately.

This is really good served with garlic bread.