Chicken noodle soup

Serves:

Ingredients

• 1.5 kg whole chicken
• 2 brown onions, peeled and quartered
• 6 cloves garlic, smashed
• 6 peppercorns
• 2 bay leaves
• 10-12 sprigs of lemon thyme
• 5 parsley stalks
• 2 button mushrooms, sliced
• 3 teaspoons salt
• 1 ½ cups carrot, peeled and diced small
• 1 cup celery, diced small
• 200g spaghetti noodles, broken in half

Method

Wash chicken with cold water to remove excess fat and juices.

Place into a large saucepan and add onions, garlic, peppercorns, bay leaves, lemon thyme, parsley and mushrooms.

Fill with the saucepan with cold water until it is 1-2 cm above chicken and bring to the boil.

Once boiling, turn heat down to a simmer place a lid on to keep cooking temperature even and cook for 30 minutes.

Remove the cooked chicken with tongs being careful as the legs will be loose and may drop off. Allow to cool then proceed to pull off all the meat.

Add one teaspoon of salt to the cooking stock that remains in the saucepan, bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Turn the heat off and steep for 5 minutes (just let it sit).

Through a sieve, pour the stock into a large bowl.

Wash out saucepan then refill with your strained stock and bring it to the boil. Add 2 more teaspoons of salt, as well as the noodles, carrot and celery. Keep at the boil until the pasta is el dente.

Add shredded chicken meat, check seasoning and serve.

Notes

• This soup is a ‘get well soon’ gift. Your grandmother would be proud.
• Steeping the stock before adding the noodles and extra vegetables allows all the flavours to combine and develop before adding more ingredients.
• I like to cook the pasta in the stock to incorporate the starch.
• If you feel like an extra flavour lift, some freshly ground chilli flakes and a squeeze of lemon juice tastes really yummy.
• Recipe created by Camilla Baker for Kidspot, New Zealand’s best recipe finder.

Serving Suggestions

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