First, thank you all for the tremendous love and affection you gave on my last post. You make sharing my life worthwhile.

Next order of business: I make this chicken noodle soup nearly every weekend. Mainly because it works as an olive branch for when I’ve told Daniel, ‘You are the stupidest person in the whole wide world,‘ following an ordinary round of Jeopardy.  But also, because soup is, you know, sustenance.

And making a big pot of soup will provide me with no less than five delicious and filling meals for the week ahead, which leaves me with ample time to fulfill all of my other pressing obligations. Baking cookies, thinking about Hostess cupcakes, writing letters to major companies and the city of Las Vegas, discovering pictures of myself on Daniel’s iPhone, organizing my nail polishes, finding things to dip bread into…

I’m a very busy person, as you can imagine.

Here’s how it’s done:

Start by roasting a whole chicken, rubbed completely with canola oil, for 1 hour 45 minutes at 400 degrees F.

Let the chicken cool enough so that you can handle it, then peel off all skin, discard it, and cut the chicken meat into bite sized pieces.

In a large stock pot, combine the chicken bones with 2 quarts of good quality chicken broth. Essentially, I’m doubling the flavor of traditional homemade stock by boiling the bones in it. The resulting broth will be full of rich chicken flavor and will taste as though you’ve slowly simmered it all day long.

Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove the bones from the broth with a slotted spoon. Discard them.

Now, to that pot of stock, add 4 large carrots, chopped, 4 stalks of celery, chopped, one medium onion, chopped, 2 bay leaves, 2 teaspoons salt, 1 teaspoon black pepper, 2 sprigs of fresh parsley, and 3 sprigs fresh thyme. Let this simmer for 30 minutes, until the veggies are soft.

Add all of the chicken meat to the pot and stir to combine. Simmer for an additional and final 30 minutes, then stir in 3 cups of your favorite cooked small shape pasta and 2 cups of thawed sweet peas.

Serve a big bowl with fresh, crusty bread, and then portion the rest of it into big glass containers to eat throughout the week!

Healthy Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

serves 5

1 whole chicken, 4-5 lbs

1 tablespoon canola oil

2 quarts chicken broth

4 large carrots, roughly chopped

4 stalks celery, roughly chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

2 bay leaves

3 sprigs fresh thyme

2 sprigs parsley

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

3 cups cooked small shape pasta, I like to use ditalini, orzo, or acini di pepe

2 cups frozen sweet peas, thawed

Start by roasting a whole chicken, rubbed completely with canola oil, for 1 hour 45 minutes at 400 degrees F. Let the chicken cool enough so that you can handle it, then peel off all skin, discard it, and cut the chicken meat into bite sized pieces.

In a large stock pot, combine the chicken bones with 2 quarts of good quality chicken broth. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove the bones from the broth with a slotted spoon. Discard them.

Now, to that pot of stock, add carrots, celery, onion, bay leaves, salt, black pepper, and fresh thyme. Let this simmer for 30 minutes, until the veggies are soft. Add all of the chicken meat to the pot and stir to combine. Simmer for an additional and final 30 minutes. Remove the bay leaves and thyme. Stir in cooked pasta and peas and serve.

Nutrition info per serving: Calories: 288.7, Fat: 4.1g, Cholesterol: 89.9mg, Carb: 36.1g, Fiber: 3.5g, Sugars: 4.2g, Protein: 27.7g

Tagged as: broth, carrot, celery, cheddar, cheese, chicken, comfort food, freezing, homemade, onion, rotisserie, soup, stock