# Chicken noodle soup



## Juliev (Nov 5, 2004)

Chicken noodle soup: 

1 large whole fryer 
1 cup onions, diced 
1/2 cup celery, diced 
1/2 cup parsley, minced 
4 garlic clove, crushed
1 cup carrots, chopped 
3 bay leaves 
1 tsp poultry seasoning 
4 qt water 
12 oz broad egg noodles 
2 tbsp butter 
1 cup onion rings, sliced 
1 cup mushrooms, sliced 
1 cup carrots, diced 
1/4 cup cream sherry 
1 salt & pepper, to taste 
1 scallions, for garnish 

First, take the chicken and wash it thoroughly - that means both 
inside and out! Remove the giblets, scrub out the internal cavity 
under cold running water, and scrape away anything that doesn't look 
edible. (But DO NOT remove the chicken skin or any of the fat! You 
need the skin to make a rich stock.) 

Next, take a crock pot and place the chicken and giblets into it. Then drop in the diced onions, the 1/2 c of celery, the 1/2 c of minced parsley, the 
garlic, chopped carrots and bay leaves, poultry seasoning and 2 
quarts of water. Then, with a spoon, evenly distribute the seasoning 
mixture around the chicken, turn the crock pot to high, and cook for 
at least six hours (or better still, OVERNIGHT). Remember, the longer 
you cook, the richer the base stock and the more tender the chicken. 

While the chicken is slow-cooking, it's a good time to prepare 
your noodles. Go ahead and boil them according to package 
directions... but DO NOT COOK THEM UNTIL DONE! Keep in mind that 
you're going to drop them into a soup, so you want them el dente 
(firm), otherwise they'll turn to pure mush by the time you eat them. 
Furthermore, you want a small percent of the starch in the noodles to 
cook into the soup to thicken it slightly -if you cook the noodles 
all the way, the soup's consistency will be flat and thin. 

After the noodles are cooked, butter them slightly and set them 
aside. 

When the chicken is tender, take a set of tongs or a strainer 
spoon, remove it from the crock pot (it may tend to fall apart, but 
that's okay), and set it on a platter to cool. At this point, strain 
out all the seasoning vegetables from the stock, place the stock into 
a metal bowl, and place the bowl into the refrigerator or freezer 
until the chicken fat congeals (which should take about 1 hour). 
Meanwhile, pick the chicken off the bones and, with a sharp knife, 
chop it into bit-sized pieces. 

Then, in a heavy 12-inch skillet, melt the butter and saute the 
sliced onions, mushrooms, and carrots until they're tender. Then 
drop in the chopped chicken meat. And over medium-low heat, cook it 
into the vegetables for about 10 minutes. 

While the chicken and vegetables are sauteing, remove the chicken 
stock from the refrigerator, skim off all the fat, and place the 
skimmed stock into a soup pot, along with the remaining 2 quarts of 
water. At this point, you should season the soup stock to taste with 
salt and pepper. 

Now drop in the sauteed chicken, mushrooms, onion rings and diced 
carrots - along with the sherry, the Tabasco, and as soon as it 
comes to a boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer the soup for about 
30 minutes to allow all the flavors to thoroughly blend. 

When you're ready to eat, ladle out heaping helpings of the 
piping hot soup into bowls, garnish with a sprinkling of thinly 
sliced green onions, and serve with crunched saltines.


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