Soup Season Cometh! Prepare Thyself!

Golly gosh it sure has been awhile, hasn't it? I guess that is what happens when you don't lead a very exciting life (I hear excitement isn't all it is hyped up to be anyhoo).

I decided to finally post a recipe for my chicken noodle soup. It's nothing really special and isn't a cut and dry recipe. I have found that each time I make it gets better and the batch I made tonight tasted especially good. So for once I actually wrote down some measurements!

You know how you look at a recipe and it has ingredients and directions and you do exactly what they say? Yea, this isn't one of those. Any time you make a soup, you have to keep in mind that every person has different taste preferences and as a result you should always taste it as you go and add a bit more of certain ingredients as desired/needed. This recipe is designed around my likes (everything but the carrots) and dislikes (carrots) and a balance of noodles and broth and all that. You can always use a bigger pot if you have one if you want to add more of any specific ingredient.

I feel like half the reason you have soup is because you don't feel like making a big hearty meal so why exert a lot of effort! The first time I made it I took so much care to cook and then shred chicken breasts and I will admit it looked nice and homemade, but I wanted the homemade taste without spending an hour prepping chicken and other stuff to sit in a pot for another hour. So, as I do with most things, I found shortcuts.

Just keep all this in mind when you are making this, recipes are more like guidelines sometimes. I have more ingredient notes below because I am insane and want to explain myself.

Lazy Lady Chicken Soup

Ingredients

• 6 Baby Carrots; sliced
• 6 Stalks of celery; sliced
• About 1 Bag of No Yolks Dumpling Noodles
• 15 cups water (+1 cup)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 15-20 oz Canned chicken
• 15+ tsp Chicken granules

Oh look a picture of most of the stuff! Handy!

Directions

1. Bring 15 cups of water to a boil in a big pot.
2. Add noodles to boiling water and let boil about 5 minutes on high. Turn down to medium and begin adding other ingredients starting with the veggies (carrots & celery) and chicken then the granules.
3. Add in the spices last and once the noodles have expanded to their full size decide if they are too overwhelming and more water is needed. (I usually end up adding another cup of water at this point if the soup looks more like noodles than soup).
4. Tone it down to the simmer setting and let it simmer uncovered for an hour (yea soup takes a long time).
5. Check the soup throughout this hour and give it a taste, add more spices/granules if you think it could use some extra flavor. 

Aaaaannnddd DONE! Enjoy with Ritz Roasted Vegetable crackers cause they are fantastic.

Additional Ingredient Notes

Noodles: These noodles come in bags of 12oz and I do not use the whole bag, I leave about a cup's worth in the bag because I do not have a very large pot. You can always add more once they expand if you think the noodle department is lacking.

Granules: I used to use bouillon cubes, and then we used a powder version because they were out of cubes, then the last time I went they were out of both (seriously?), but I found this Wyler's brand chicken granules whatsits and I actually think the flavoring is better, so I will probably stick with this... unless they run out of EVERYTHING....

Oh this recipe takes chunks of chicken? Better get some cans!

Chicken: As I said above, it may not look like grandma's gloriously manhandled chicken breasts, but it works just the same. If you want to cook, cool and tear apart 2 chicken breasts, by all means you rip that clucker up like a bear on steroids, but I'm sticking with my cans. (I usually buy 10oz cans and use 2, but HEY of course they were out! What the heck Kroger? Is there a food shortage I don't know about?)

Feel free to ask questions and change up the recipe as you like. If you actually favor carrots (ew), you can add more. I use only enough for color and some additional flavor/chunkiness.