Thursday, December 15, 2011

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Sorry about the flash reflection on the broth! Haha Ill get a better pic next time:)

Broth:
1 Whole Chicken
1-3 Breasts of Chicken (If Desired)
1 medium Onion, quartered I have used chopped frozen or dehydrated onions)
2-4 Carrots, whole
3 stalks of Celery, whole or halfed
3 cloves Garlic, whole and peeled
3-4 Tbls Chicken Bullion Powder (or cubes or base, I think base is the best)
Water to cover

Soup
Water
2 Tbls Bullion Powder (or cubes or base)
1 Tbls Salt
4 C Carrots, chopped
4 C Potatoes, chopped
4 C Celery, chopped
1/2 large Onion
1-2 cloves of Garlic, pressed (I have also used dehydrated here)
Egg Noodles (or make your own!! SO GOOD) - Can use Gluten Free 

Noodles
2C. Flour - (Can use Gluten free flour blend but they are a little flaky)
2 Eggs - (Can use JUST eggs for allergy)
Water

Broth:
Place whole chicken and 1-2 breasts (if desired for extra meat) in crock pot, add onion, carrots, celery, garlic and bullion, add water to cover, cook low 6 hrs. Place a strainer over a large stock pot and strain the stock into the large stock pot. Set aside the chicken to cool and toss veggies (you need to pull chicken apart so it needs to be cool enough to touch with your hands).

Soup:
Add water to the stock to thin. I add enough to fill my stock pot about 3/4 full but thats up to you. Add 2 more TBSP of bullion and 1 TBSP of salt (this is to taste. Just keep adding until you like the taste). Bring to a boil.  Meanwhile, chop up carrots, potatoes, celery, onion and garlic. Once the stock is boiling add the veggies, bring back to a boil and boil until veggies are tender. While veggies are getting tender, tear chicken apart with hands. I tend to only use the white meat but when my hubby shredded the chicken he digs more into it and gets out every little bit of meat. Thats up to you too:)  Finally, add  noodles and boil until the noodles are done.

Noodles:
Mix flour and 2 eggs together, add drizzles of water until a ball forms. Set ball aside to rest for 10 minutes. Cut into 4 small balls, roll out and cut each ball as desired. I use the KitchenAid attachment and roll to a thickness of 4 and slice with the fettuccine cutter. Hang to dry or boil immediately. You can make these the night before and refrigerate if you choose. If you choose to make noodles any recipe works but this is the one I use and I use the whole batch.

I also make rolls the day I make this recipe and make atleast 3 dozen. That way my family eats that night and I freeze two bags of soup and 2 bags of rolls for another nights fast easy and still homemade dinner! Yummy:)

FREEZABLE: When you are ready to use it next just set it out to defrost or dump the frozen soup in a pot and warm through. Being frozen with the starch of the noodles and potatoes thickens the broth. Add a little more water as you heat until you have reached your desired thickness. Keep this in mind as you freeze it. You can freeze slightly less per batch and it ends up making plenty once thinned. 
**I have not frozen this with the gluten and egg allergy adjustments- so I don't know how that will work

Sarah's Wheat Bread

2 cups Hot tap water
2/3 cup warm water
1/3 cup oil
1/3 cup honey
1T dough enhancer
1 T gluten
1 T salt
3 pkgs of yeast (equivalent to 4 1/2 Tbsp)
3-4  cups of whole wheat flour

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Put hot water in mixing bowl. Add 2 1/2 cups of wheat flour. Add gluten, dough enhancer, oil, honey, salt and dissolved yeast. Mix for a minute.
Put the dough hook on your mixer. Add 2 more cups of flour. Mix while adding 1/4 cup of flour until dough pulls away clean.Remove from bowl and knead into a ball. Spray mixing bowl with PAM and return ball of dough to bowl.  Cover the bowl with a cloth or Pam sprayed Saran Wrap and let the dough double in size.
Punch down and knead until elastic feeling. Add flour if sticky. Divide into two halves. Put into greased bread pans. Cover with Pam sprayed plastic wrap. Let rise.
Cook at 350 for 30 minutes. 
Makes 2 loves.