Soup is one of my favorite foods. My mom makes all kinds of soups, and I eat all kinds of soups (with the exception of Split Pea). My yahoos have also, consequently, learned to love soup as well. My soups are about the most 'homemade' foods I make around here, and I only make two kinds - Chicken 'Noodle' Soup and Taco Soup. Maybe I'll venture into the realm of Beef Vegetable sometime, but I wouldn't count on it.
Okay, so this weekend I made the famous Chicken 'Noodle' Soup. I include those little 'marks' because it doesn't always involve noodles, though usually some type of pasta. Although, there was a time (all too recently, in fact) that I set out to make my famous NOODLE soup...without NOODLES. Thus, I now have to label with those marks, because it was the same soup, just, um...no noodles, or pasta for that matter (which is almost too much to believe, but is true nonetheless).
Here's my ingredients...onion, a few carrots from the bulk veggie section (if I buy a whole bag they go bad before I find a way to use them all), a bag of celery (this the yahoos and I eat with dip, so it's okay to buy a whole bag!).
Then comes my
cheaters for this meal. First, the chicken. Here's my philosophy on chicken - why buy a whole roaster chicken when you can buy one ALREADY ROASTED for the same price?? Quite frankly, I think the rotisserie chickens are a 'million dollar idea' for the grocery stores (I'm still working on
my 'million dollar idea'). Now, my friend Big T thinks it's silly that I just won't boil, roast, bake my own whole raw chicken. She does it. She's even done it at my house. And that way, she also gets makings for gravy and/or broth, etc. But, as with everything related to my cooking, why do it yourself is someone else has already done it - and done it well! So that's where my solution for the broth comes in as well - in my new 6 quart crockpot I can fit two of the large cans of Swanson Chicken Broth - which I buy in bulk at Sams. Love it.
With the rotisserie chicken, I usually save the breast meat for use in other recipes. Sometimes I freeze the already cooked breasts, or if it's in the menu plan for the week, I just cut them off, bag em, and fridge them until later. Then I use all the rest of the meat (minus the wings which are useless on those things) for the soup. Legs, thighs and every other nook and cranny in that chicken...I strip it clean. So, that's what's in that container - my stripped chicken. I did, in fact, use the breasts for another great recipe that week, but you'll have to wait until the next time I make it because I hadn't started this blog yet.
Okay, back making the soup. First, I created my veggie parfait (well, actually, I stripped the chicken first, but that was a few days before...on EATING day the first thing I did was create the veggie parfait).
I was, apparently, feeling extra creative, cause I cut the carrots with my crinkle cutter instead of a regular knife. Go me. Then, I took everything and dumped it into the crockpot (onions, carrots, celery, chicken and broth) and then I sprinkled some of this on top:
Once again, I
could use a variety of seasonings, but do I...no. Why, cause they all come, conveniently, in this one bottle. Okay, wait - I did also add some parsley flakes. Must have been feeling adventurous.
Put crockpot on low for however long you need (I'd recommend at least a few hours - well, more like 4 - but according to my new crockpot instructions, you can't really overcook veggies in a crockpot, so it's okay if it goes as long as 8 hours, too).
Now for the noodles (or sometimes the lack thereof!). Do NOT add the noodles to your crockpot right away - or you will end up with a mass of noodles. Most often, if I'm just using regular wide egg noodles, I boil them up when the soup is ready, scoop a wad (that's a cooking term) into the bottom of a bowl and then ladle the soup on top. This particular round of soup had alphabet noodles, which I did add to the crockpot about a 1/2 hour before we were going to eat it. I've heard rumor you can use rice, too. Haven't tried that. I'm a fan of pasta. Boil when ready to eat, or toss into the crockpot a little before you're ready to eat.
The end result is happy yahoos, who apparently are so happy they forego utensils in favor of direct to mouth eating in this instance.
Toss in some chopped onions....
Now comes some personal preferences...I've made this several ways....adding nothing...adding water...or adding chicken stock/broth. Add about one soup can's worth or so...the veggies will add some liquid to the mix, so the more liquid you add, the soupier your meal will be.
If you want dumplings that are more 'noodle-like', you can go back and stir them into the mixture after they've plumped a little bit. If you like them more like biscuits, simply let them continue to cook on top, and they'll eventually end up with a nice, brown baked look to them.
