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!

Potato Soup

My mom makes the best potato soup! This however is not entirely hers. She uses a different base than I did for this soup, but my husband gave it an 8 out of 10 so I thought I would share it with you! My mom deserves a lot of the credit though because besides the base of the soup everything else is how she makes hers!

What you need:

2 cups milk

4 cups chicken broth

2-3 Bay Leaves

1/4 cup Flour

4 Tablespoons Butter

1 1/2 cups carrots

1 1/2 cups celery

3-4 Russet Potatoes

1 1/2 cups sausage

Salt

Pepper

Fresh Chives

In a pot boil milk and chicken broth. In a sauce pan stir butter and flour to make a roux. Once roux is made add it slowly, while stirring constantly to the chicken broth and milk. Add bay leaves. Shred (cuisinart food processor works great for shredding) or cube potatoes and add them. While that cooks on medium heat, cook sausage and then add to the soup. Chop carrots and celery and add. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cut chives and add. Let cook for about 15-20 minutes and serve with rolls or cheesy bread or anything you like!

Fideo (Mexican Soup)

This is a soup that I learned to make from my cute mother-in-law! There are actually several ways that you can make this soup. Sometimes I add an extra can of tomatoe sauce to make it thicker and then eat grilled cheese sandwhiches with it!

What you need:

7 oz. package of Fideo noodles (found in the mexican isle of the grocery store)

8 oz. can Tomatoe Sauce (mexican style if possible)

15 oz. can Chicken Broth

2 Serrano Peppers, cut in half (only if you want soup to be spicy)

Chicken Boullion

1/2 Teaspoon Garlic Powder

3 Tablespoons Olive Oil

Water

Mexican Table Cream (Optional)

Feta Cheese (Optional)

In a soup pan add olive oil, fideo noodles, serrano peppers, and garlic. Brown fideo noodles on medium high heat. Add Tomatoe sauce and using the tomatoe sauce can add 2 cans of water. Add chicken broth and 2 cans of water, add chicken boullion to taste (about 1 tablespoon). Boil for about 20 minutes or until noodles are tender. Serve plain or with the table cream and feta cheese.

Corn Soup

What you need:

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/2 cup onion, cut into 1/4 inch, diced

4 cups fresh corn kernels cut from about 7 ears

3 cups chicken broth

2-3 Russet potatoes, cut into 1/4 inch cubes

Salt, to taste

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 cup half and half

2 tablespoons chopped chives, for garnish

Place butter in a pot over low heat. Add diced onion and wilt for about 10 minutes.

Add the corn and the chicken broth and bring to a simmer. Cook partially covered for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Puree the soup in a blender in 2 batches. Return to pot. Add salt, pepper, potatoes (optional), and half and half; cook over low heat for 10-20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Ladle soup into bowls. Before serving, top with the chopped chives.

Caldo de Pollo

What you need:

whole shredded chicken

2 cans chicken stock

water

Salt

2-3 tablespoons Chicken Boullion/base

1/2 onion

2-3 Serrano Peppers (cut stems off)

1 Bag of Carrots (or as many as you would like)

2 whole Zuchinnies (peeled and chopped into circles)

1/2 Medium Cabbage (chopped)

3-4 Russet Potatoes (cut into large quarters)

Cilantro (diced)

In a large stew pot boil whole chicken. Add salt and a few bay leaves. Boil for about 2-2 and a half hours. If I have time I prepare the chicken a day ahead and store the whole pot in the refrigerator with the cooked chicken and water inside. This makes a great chicken stock base for the soup. After chicken is cooked remove from the pot and set aside to cool. Once cooled shred the chicken and set aside.

Pour the chicken stock from the large pot into a large bowl using a strainer to get rid of the drippings from boiling the chicken. Pour chicken stock back into pot and add the two cans of chicken stock and two cans of water. Add chicken boullion. Turn heat to medium high. Take the half onion and the serrano peppers and blend them together in a blender. Add a little of the chicken stock to the mixture for an easier blend. Add to the chicken stock. Add carrots and cut up potatoes. Let boil for about 10 minutes then add shredded chicken. Boil for about 20 minutes or until potatoes and carrots are almost cooked.

Add zuchinnies and let cook for about 5 minutes. Finally add cilantro and cabbage. Let boil on medium high heat for about 5-10 more minutes. Remove from heat and serve. I also add limes, rice, and green salsa to this soup to make it spicy because it is more of a mexican type of chicken soup. The green salsa is the tomatillo salsa in this blog.