Chicken Noodle Soup

This past weekend my entire family has come down with a cold so I figured I'd try out a timeless "feel better" remedy of chicken noodle soup. I thought making chicken noodle soup was much more complicated than it turned out to be which means I see a lot more soup in our future! 

Another benefit of meal planning is it can cut down your overall time in the kitchen. For example, while making chicken noodle soup I made extra chicken so I could also make chicken salad to have for lunch this week. For the chicken noodle soup I only used about 3 of the chicken breasts. 

I decided to season our chicken before cooking it. I sprinkled both sides of the chicken with garlic salt, pepper, and oregano. Then I baked the chicken at 375 degrees for about 25-30 minutes or until cooked through.

Once the chicken is cooked you can shred it. I do this by putting it in my kitchen aid mixer with the paddle attachment but it can also be shredded by hand. 

While the chicken is baking you can prepare everything else for the soup. Dice 2 stalks of celery, I do this by first slicing the celery lengthwise and then into small pieces. Also, peel and cut up 2 carrots, 2 parsnips, half an onion and 3 cloves of garlic.


You many be wondering, what is a parsnip? It is very similar to a carrot, they are in the same family but a parsnip is lighter in color and taste sweeter than a carrot. Parsnips also have Vitamin C, which can be an immune booster, perfect when trying to overcome a cold! 






 Place all of the chopped veggies in a large pot with 2 Tablespoons of olive oil. Heat and cook for about 5 minutes or until they are start to get soft. 




Once the veggies are soft add in 6 cups of liquid. This can be all chicken stock or a combination of stock and water. I only had 3 cups of chicken stock on hand when I made soup so I used that with 3 cups of water and the broth still had good flavor. I also added in about 2 teaspoons of dried thyme and seasoned it with some salt and pepper. Bring the stock to a boil and add in about 2 cups of dry pasta. I chose whole wheat rotini. Some times pasta gets soggy in soup but I felt like the whole wheat pasta held up nicely; even when we reheated the soup for lunch the next day. Simmer the soup for about 7 minutes to cook the pasta. 

Add in 2 1/2 cups of the shredded chicken and gently stir it into the soup. Simmer the soup for about 5 minutes. 

 That's it! Healthy, delicious, homemade chicken noodle soup full of veggies; perfect for a cold evening.