Chicken Soup

Everybody's go-to soup is Chicken Noodle Soup. Like most of you, I believe in the medicinal, healing properties of a hearty chicken soup. The best flavor comes, of course, from cooking off the bones...that creates the almost jell-like broth.

Most of the time, chicken soup is the thing I do with leftover roasted chicken.  And the truth is -- a good soup is more technique than recipe...

I pick off the meat, and simmer the carcass.  For a long time.  Maybe two hours.  I strain the bones.  When it's cool, I pick the remaining bits of meat off the bones and skim off the fat. 

I add the meat back into the broth, and the usual suspects:  celery, onions, carrots, corn...

Helen Farro: My mother-in-law taught me to always cook the noodles separate from the soup.

The back burner is the actual chicken soup -- the front burner is the pot where I will cook the noodles...

Instead of boiling the noodles in plain water, I add a little soup base for flavor...

THEN I boil them....and I never let the cooked noodles sit too long in the water.

After heating the soup, I add hot, cooked noodles to each bowl. (which is also great if somebody is low-carbing it).

Rachael Ray taught me to saute the vegetables BEFORE I add them to the soup. They are much more flavorful -- and that really hurries things up.

Also, both Helen and Rachael agreed that parsley is a wonderful addition to soup -- but to add it at the  last minute...right before serving...