Chicken Noodle Soup

I finally got the recipe how I liked it! After taking many recipes, and combining and changing and adding whatever to it, I am happy with how it is now!

Ingredients:

one whole chicken

1 bay leaf

1 tsp. boullion

1/2 tsp. celery salt

1 tsp. minced garlic

1/2 tsp. onion powder

1/2 tsp. thyme

1/4 tsp. pepper, or to taste

1 tsp. salt, or to taste

Directions:

Cover chicken with water and above ingredients. You can certainly add carrots, onions, and celery to this, but I like to do that in a different step.

Once chicken is done, take out of water to cool. I strain the broth at this point to get any bits of skin or even bones out of it. You don't have to, but I just like to!

Put broth back on stove to keep boiling.

In another pot, mix the following

Ingredients:

4 carrots, sliced

1 medium onion, diced

2 celery ribs

1/4 c. butter

Directions:

Simmer those together until everything is tender and turning a golden brown on outside. Stir in 1/4 c. flour and let that turn thick and golden brown with the veggies for a couple minutes. Turn of heat.

At this point, I make some homemade noodles. My kids love them. I think they are fun to make! I use THIS recipe. Just make sure you roll out thin enough and also slice them thinly (I use a pizza cutter). They poof up while cooking, so that's why you want them pretty thin.

Debone chicken and throw the pieces back into the boiling broth. Add the veggies with everything in the pan, scraping it to get all the bits of veggies and butter. Place the noodles, one at a time, into the boiling broth. They don't take long to cook. *I heard that you can put vinegar in the water to keep them from sticking, or some people say they put the noodles in a bag with flour and toss them so they are coated with flour. That might save time, but I've never tried either of those. Turn off heat because it now is SUPER hot and will stay hot for a long, long time!

You can be done and it's great at this point, or you can mix in some milk or half and half. My mom always made her chicken noodle soup with milk, so I sometimes add 2 cups milk or if I have it, the half and half.