Chicken Noodle Soup

My husband caught a cold this weekend. So I decided to try making some homemade chicken noodle soup for him. I found a recipe of Emeril Lagasse's on the foodnetwork that stood as the foundation to my soup. I didn't have all the ingredients that he used and I kind of cheated a little by buying a already cooked chicken from Costco and some of Costco's homemade style egg noodles, but it tasted delicious!

What you need for chicken broth:

1 (3-4 lb.) whole chicken

1 quart chicken stock or low-sodium chicken broth

2 quarts water

2 medium onions, quartered

2 carrots, roughly chopped

2 celery stalks, roughly chopped

2 sprigs fresh thyme

5-6 parsley stems

1 bay leaf

Place the chicken in a large stockpot or Dutch oven and cover with the chicken stock and 2 quarts of water. Add the onion quarters, roughly chopped carrots and celery, thyme, parsley stems, and the bay leaf. Bring mixture to a boil, partially cover and reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer for 1 hour. The chicken should easily pull away from the bones.

Using tongs, remove the chicken from the broth and set aside until cool enough to handle. Strain the cooking liquid through a fine-meshed sieve, lined with cheesecloth, discarding the vegetables and reserving the stock. Pull the chicken meat off the bones, discarding the bones, skin, and any fat. Shred and reserve meat.

What you need for soup:

2 tbs. unsalted butter

4 ounces whole button mushrooms, quartered

1/2 cup diced onions

1/2 cup sliced carrots

1/2 cup small-diced celery

2 1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

1/4 lb. dried vermicelli noodles (or egg noodles)

2 tbs. chopped fresh parsley leaves

Melt the butter in a large stockpot ovre medium-high heat. Add mushrooms and cook until browned, about 3 minutes. Add the diced onions, carrots, and celery and cook until the vegetables are softened, about 2 minutes. Stir in reserve cooked chicken. Add reserved chicken stock and bring to a boil over high heat.

Season soup with salt and pepper, to taste. Add vermicelli (or egg noodles) and simmer until noodles are cooked through, 10 to 12 minutes for the vermicelli noodles, but it might be different for egg noodles so check the pasta package. Remove from heat and stir in parsley. Serve hot.

Just as a reminder that if you are short on time you can always cheat by buying a rotisserie chicken from the store and shredding that. Chicken broth is easy to make. I buy chicken base from Costco and follow the directions on how to make it. This will save you at least an hour!