Chicken Noodle Soup with Homemade Egg Noodles

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

So I have been kind of obsessed with making homemade egg noodles lately.  One of my favorite uses for egg noodles made from scratch…….a delicious homemade chicken noodle soup.  I recently made this soup for some coworkers and my principal.  My principal actually said that the soup and the noodles were better than his grandmother’s!  High praise if you ask me!  

You can make this soup with leftover holiday turkey or already cooked chicken…….or you can start with a whole raw chicken and boil it for an hour with the vegetables to make the broth. 

If you decide to make this soup with your leftover holiday turkey, all you have to do is put three quarts of water in a big pot and then add your leftover turkey…….bones and all!  The bones will make a great stock for your soup.  Add 8 teaspoons chicken Bouillon seasoning granules to the water and then follow the directions below for making the broth (I do this instead of using canned chicken broth).  So you will just add the green onions, celery, bay leaves, garlic, thyme, salt and peppers to the broth and turkey mixture……then simmer for about 30 minutes or until the vegetables are soft. 

Broth Ingredients:  

3 quarts water (or enough to just cover the chicken)

1 whole chicken – (about 4-5 pounds is good)

3-4 teaspoons chicken bouillon seasoning

6 large green onions – white parts only, sliced

2 celery ribs, sliced

2 bay leaves

2 cloves garlic, smashed

½ tsp dried thyme

1 tsp sea salt

½ tsp fresh ground black pepper

Preparation of the broth:

Combine all ingredients above and bring to a boil in a large pot.  Simmer for 50-60 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.  Remove the chicken from the pot, and allow to cool for deboning.  Skim off the fat and foam from the broth and discard.  

Pour the broth over a colander into a bowl, strain out the vegetables and discard the vegetables.  Pour the reserved broth back into the large pot and get ready to prepare the soup.  Yum!

Soup Ingredients:

Shredded and deboned chicken from the chicken used to make the broth

1 tsp olive oil

6 green onion tops (green tops from the green onions used above)

1 clove garlic, minced

1 rib celery, sliced lengthwise and chopped

1 large carrot, diced

¼ tsp dried Thyme

Additional chicken broth, if needed

1 batch homemade egg noodles (get the recipe) or 1 large package store bought egg noodles

Final soup preparation:

Sauté the celery, green onion tops and garlic in the olive oil until soft.  Add the remaining ingredients, except for the noodles, adding more chicken broth or water and chicken bouillon if needed.  Just make sure you have enough broth according to how much soup you want to make.  

If you make the soup using the homemade egg noodles (recipe below), bring the soup ingredients to a boil and add the egg noodles.  Simmer the egg noodles for 15-20 minutes or until the noodles are cooked through.  The homemade version of the egg noodles will thicken up the soup a bit as they cook.  

If you are using store bought noodles, bring the soup to a boil, add the noodles and cook according to package directions.  Serve with some salty crackers or warm crusty bread.  Cheers!

Homemade Egg Noodles

I have tried a few recipes for egg noodles and this is the best one I have found.  After finding this recipe, I realized that the egg noodle dough must be kneaded for 10 minutes in order to achieve that lovely texture that you want in an egg noodle.  These noodles are not doughy and dense like others I have made…..they have just the right amount of “springy” texture when you bite into them.  Just make you sure that you knead the dough for 10 minutes.  I hope you like these as much as I do…….they really are easy!  Thank you to KindCook at Food.com for sharing this egg noodle recipe!  

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour

3 egg yolks

1 whole egg

2 tsp salt

¼ to ½ cup water

Preparation:

Measure the flour into a bowl and make a well in the center of the flour.  Add the egg yolks, whole egg and salt into the well in the center of the flour.   With a fork, slightly beat the eggs while still keeping them in the flour well.  Using your hands, gradually bring the flour into the eggs and mix until eggs are incorporated into the flour.

Add the water, 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition.  Add only enough water to form the dough into a ball.  Place the dough on a well-floured board, knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes.  Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let rest for 10 minutes.

Divide dough into four equal parts.  Roll out dough, one part at a time, into a paper-thin rectangle.  Keep remaining dough covered.  I don’t roll out my dough exactly paper thin because I like them a bit thick.  Roll rectangle around rolling pin, slip out rolling pin…….you should now have a “tube” of dough folded over onto itself.  Doing this makes it easier to cut the dough into uniform sized noodles. 

Cut the dough cross-wise into 1/8 inch strips for narrow noodles and ¼ inch strips for wide noodles. 

Shake out the strips and place on a towel or paper towels to dry.  The recipe calls for the noodles to be dried for 2 hours, but I usually just let them sit for about 20-30 minutes and I have even thrown them into the soup without drying them out at all………..either way they come out great! 

When you are ready to boil the noodles, break the strips into smaller pieces.  Cook in 3 quarts boiling salted water or chicken broth for 12-15 minutes or until tender……….or add them to Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup! 

I really love these noodles and they are so easy……..as long as you don’t mind the kneading part!  Cheers!