2
Nov

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

   Posted by: MotherHen   in Soup, Vittles

Reformation Day Resolution!

I hereby resolve to put a dead chicken in a pot at least once a week until Spring of 2010 or longer!

Feel powerless when confronting a viral illness in your family?  Get over it and get out your big pot!

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Making chicken soup is so easy that we should replace pie with chicken soup in that saying.  You know, “It’s as easy as. . . chicken soup!”  It’ll only sound goofy the first 73 times you say it.  Promise.

Anyway, I don’t think you need any reminder about how chicken soup can cure what ails you.  We  just gotta do it,  make the soup.  Make it regularly!

Here’s an easy recipe to get you started. The only thing she forgot to mention is SAVE THE BONES and the skin and the connective tissue.

I know, just say “gross” and move on.

Put the gross stuff in a ziplock in the freezer for the next time you wanna make some free chicken stock. And while you’re at it put all your veggie ends and scraps in the ziplock too.

I paid just over $5 ($0.99 lb.) for my largish bird that is in my pot right now.

  1. We’re making the Chicken Soup for dinner tonight.  Makes enough for our dinner and tomorrow’s lunch, too!
  2. Using some of the meat for our Quesadillas this noon.
  3. Used the neck and organ meat with some brown rice thrown in to make Trixie-the-Wonder-Dog some extremely superior homemade dog food.  She loves me with all her doggy heart!
  4. And the chicken stock I’ll make with the bones will save me a bundle since I won’t have to buy broth.

All my recent interest in making homemade chicken stock and chicken soup comes from having read a post by a very clever and frugal mama about how she processes the chicken feet for her chicken stock.

What?!?!

The feet?

Yes, I know, say “gross” again.  It might help.

She’s got photos and everything, so clicking the link is only for the stout of heart.

But it made me think.  (Scary when that happens, ain’t it?)  But it made me wonder, what goes into chicken broth that ends up in a can at my grocery store?  Are they as meticulous about cleaning as they oughtta be?

Reminds me of a line from a forever-ago commercial about (I think) chicken nuggets.  I don’t remember how the commercial goes but the catch line is “Parts is parts.”

Eww!

I don’t wanna think about all the implications of that line.

And I don’t wanna eat factory made broth when homemade is so simple.

Linked to:

Related posts:

  1. Free Chicken Stock
  2. Wholesome ‘Mater Soup
  3. Chicken Spaghetti
  4. Chicken Flautas
  5. White Chili

This entry was posted on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 6:26 am and is filed under Soup, Vittles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

16 comments so far

FishMama@LifeasMOM
 1 

Adding “weekly soup night” to my post is a great idea! I can’t wait to hear how this goes!

November 2nd, 2009 at 9:14 am
Melissa
 2 

Hey, I’ve made the same goal to fix chicken stock once a week too. Last week the hubby and kids were not feeling well and I fixed a HUGE pot of soup and WA-la all better!

November 2nd, 2009 at 9:32 am
Becky
 3 

You’ve inspired me, especially since the girls have come home feeling poorly. One is even sniffling this morning.

November 2nd, 2009 at 10:08 am
MotherHen
 4 

Oh, good! I’m glad they’re all better! And thanks for the encouragement. Isn’t it wonderful to do something useful and helpful for the family instead of just relying on pharmaceuticals of questionable worth and safety!

November 2nd, 2009 at 10:45 am
MotherHen
 5 

Oh, Becky, I’m sorry your girls aren’t feeling well. Hopefully your soup will get them back on track in a hurry! :D

November 2nd, 2009 at 10:46 am
MotherHen
 6 

Are folks getting sick more this Fall than ordinary? Or are we just tuned in more? Either way, can’t hurt to eat the homemade chicken soup even if we never catch a thing! :D

November 2nd, 2009 at 10:47 am
Teresa
 7 

Noodles are really easy to make, and taste a lot better than packaged. For chicken soup I rarely let them dry out first (cuts out a lot of the time:). I have made half wheat/white and they were good. I have not had really good all whole wheat, but that could be that I am not use to it.
I am so sorry your littles are sick, we have been going on this for about a month now so I understand your pain. Praying for them and for it to go away quickly. I hear garlic soup is good for what the sickies also.
For high fevers I found that the be cool strips work better than tylenol, but if it is low fevers just let it be:( poor things.

Teresa

November 2nd, 2009 at 1:58 pm
Kimarie @ Cardamom's Pod
 8 

Love it! “A dead chicken in a pot…” LOL

I just HAVE to get brave now. I have a picture of the stock I made using, ahem, 4 pounds of chicken feet, and 4 pounds of chicken HEADS. I didn’t have to clean them. They were given to me (FREE) by a dear friend who raises pastured poultry. They made the most delicious broth! I did, however, promise the children that we would not pick the meat off…

I spend 8.5 years in Suriname and used to walk across the street to a Chinese shop to buy fried chicken feet for a snack. They were delicious! (And it was a lot of fun to nibble down to the tendons, then pull them to flex the toes… hee hee)

November 2nd, 2009 at 10:59 pm
MotherHen
 9 

Alright, Kimarie, you win the gross out contest! I thought it was gonna be Momma of Many with her photos of the feet, but,

” (And it was a lot of fun to nibble down to the tendons, then pull them to flex the toes… hee hee)”

EWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!! ;)

November 3rd, 2009 at 9:22 am
Gail@FaithfulnessFarm
 10 

Your soup (and bread) looks wonderful.

When my children were small we lived in a large city with a big ethnic market that I used to love to go to. The kids ALWAYS had to pass the meat counter and look at the pile of chicken feet behind the glass. I can still see their little faces looking at that mountain of feet, lol. Thanks for the memory jog :)

Blessings!
Gail

November 3rd, 2009 at 10:59 am
Cole
 11 

There’s almost nothing that some good homemade chicken soup can’t fix! Your recipe looks fabulous!

November 3rd, 2009 at 10:54 pm
Susan Godfrey
 12 

the summer after High School, I went to Costa Rica to visit my cousins there who were missionaries. They had regular grocery stores like here in the US, but they also had these really great open markets. I was amazed at what they sold in them…lol! Every part of the chicken you could imagine…feet, heads, etc. Back then I thought it was SO gross and wondered what people used them for…I certainly didn’t think for food…lol! I was so naive…but still don’t think I could use chicken feet in my stock =)

November 9th, 2009 at 9:23 am
canuck_grad
 13 

Your soup looks delicious! I just made my first roasted whole chicken last week, and then made broth in the crockpot using the recipe from nourishing days. I froze all the broth and have been looking for a good soup recipe to use it up, so I will be trying this out soon! The only thing I was concerned about is that my broth tasted a bit bland – I guess because it’s not full of salt like store-bought broths. Hopefully the added salt and spices will be enough to perk it up a bit!

Does the soup freeze well? Do you freeze it in glass jars like that?

November 16th, 2009 at 12:47 am
MotherHen
 14 

Hi Canuck_grad,
Yes, I agree about the bland taste of the broth/soup. Campbell’s etc. have a very high sodium content and we need to adjust our taste buds. Meanwhile we can use sea salt in ever diminishing amounts.
I haven’t ever frozen the soup or the broth and so don’t have any first hand info on that. We eat it up! Here’s a link to the National Center for Home Food Preservation. I bet they know! :D

November 16th, 2009 at 9:45 am
Tina
 15 

Hello I was looking at how you put in jars can you explain how you store this and save for later meals? I am like a sponge right now. Trying to learn everything.

January 12th, 2010 at 7:39 am
MotherHen
 16 

Hi Tina,
I use the jars because they fit in the fridge well without too much wasted space. You could use a bowl or other covered dish. I keep the leftover soup in the fridge, it’s not properly canned, so it is as perishable as any other leftovers. Here are a couple of web pages that show the safe storage length of refrigerated items. #1 and #2
Ya might want to bookmark or print out one of those lists for future reference.
I hope that is what you wanted to know. Feel free to ask any more questions you may have. I’m happy to help! :D

January 12th, 2010 at 8:17 am