Originally published by emphelan
It’s happened, we all knew it would. I am sick. The reason I am so late posting this morning. Chores take longer, the cold feels colder, and you just don’t want to do anything but lie in bed and complain. Unfortunately most of us don’t have that luxury. I can a Simple Chicken Noodle Soup to break out on such occasions, just to warm me from the inside out.
To start, you will need to make the stock.
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 whole chicken (3 1/2 lbs)
1 medium onion
2 quarts boiling water
2 teaspoons salt
2 bay leaves
Remove the breast from your chicken, split and reserve. Use a cleaver to hack up the remaining chicken into 2 inch pieces. Or you can allow your chicken to soak in the boiling water
(reduce heat to a very low simmer) for a few hours. The meat will fall off the bone. Drain and reserve stock skipping the sauteing steps for the chicken below.
Medium dice your onion.
Heat oil in a large stock pot. When the oil begins to simmer and just starts to smoke, add the chicken breast halves, saute until brown on both sides. This should take about 5 minutes. Remove the breast pieces and set aside.
Saute the onion until colored and softened, 2-3 minutes. transfer to a bowl.
Add half of your hacked up chicken pieces to the pot, cook for 4-5 minutes until no longer pink. Place the chicken into a bowl with your onions. Saute remaining chicken. Add all the chicken (not the breast) and onions back into the pot and reduce heat to a simmer. Allow chicken to release juices, 20 minutes.
Boil your water. Increase your stock pot heat to high, add the boiling water, the chicken breast, salt and bay leaves. simmer for another 20 minutes.
Remove the breast and allow to cool to the touch. Remove skin and bones, and shred chicken to bite sized pieces. Set aside the breast. Strain the broth, reserving the liquid and disguarding any solids. Allow to cool and skim off the fat, reserve the fat for a later use. This all can be covered and refrigerated for 2 days. You can preserve the chicken stock by canning as well. Fill your hot pint or quart jars, leaving 1 inch head-space. Process your quarts for 25 minutes, pints 20 minutes in a pressure canner.
Now you need noodles. I know, I can hear it. How simple is this, really? Prep might not be that simple, but it uses all the simplest cooking skills and ingredients. All these components can be kept separate, made at separate times, and easily incorporated into many other food stuffs.
Noodle Primer
Salt and oils are always optional in any pasta primer. Many people like to include these items, but they are not required. Skip the salt and oil if you want. It does affect taste, but that is a personal preference.
This recipe is for hand made, not machine made.
1 1/3 – 1 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons olive oil
Working directly on your counter, pour out the flour, making a well to place your eggs and oil. 
Gradually draw the eggs into the flour with your fork.
Beat lightly. If needed add a little more flour at a time. Dough should be sticky but not moist, work into a ball.
Allow the ball to rest a few minutes before kneading. Sprinkle a little flour on your work surface and knead until silky smooth. This will take 6-8 minutes.
Cover with a damp towel and allow it to rest for 10 minutes, 30 minutes is better if you have the time.
Roll out your dough. DO NOT ADD MORE FLOUR. The dough will feel damper, but it’s all good.What you can do is use a very light dusty of flour on your work surface and your hands, and I mean very light. Roll the dough out using your hands, which means to flatten it as much as possible. If your dough doesn’t seem to be working with you, replace the damp towel and allow it to sit an additional 10 minutes.
Now grab you rolling pin, lightly dust, and roll out the pasta dough as you would your pie crust, starting at the center and rolling it out in a circle. You want to roll it out to the thickness of a dime. Much thinner than you might think it needs to be. Allow it to rest for 10 minutes.
Roll the dough up into a cylinder, loosely, and cut 1/8-1/2 inch wide. Make sure you are using a very sharp knife. Loosen up the coils and drape over a broom handle that is clean and horizontal. Allow the noodles to dry fully before storing.
When we gonna get to the soup woman!?! Well, right now.
Chicken Noodle Soup.
I had to build the suspense ya know.
2 Tablespoons chicken fat
1 medium onion, diced
1 large carrots, peeled and sliced
1 celery stalk, sliced
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
The entire amount of chicken stock we made above
2 cups or 3 ounces noodles
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
ground black pepper
Heat chicken fat in your soup kettle over a medium high heat. Add the vegetables and saute for 5 minutes. Add thyme, stock and shredded breast, simmer 10-15 minutes. Add noodles and cook until tender. Stir in the pepper and parsley, adjust seasoning to taste.
VIOLA! Simple Chicken Noodle Soup.
Process in a pressure canner, quarts for 90 minutes, pints for 75 minutes. It really doesn’t take that long because you are not packing in meat only, but people get upset if you reduce the time with meat products. But I process my pints for 25 minutes, quarts for 40 minutes. Make sure to boil your canned soups for 10 minutes before tasting.
