Chicken Noodle Soup (For the Graduate Student Who Doesn't Want to Starve)

Last week, I was telling my mom that Progresso's Light Chicken Noodle soup was pretty good, and she suggested that I actually just make my own chicken noodle soup, so I'd know what all went in to it. So I did.

I acquired all the necessary ingredients, such as chicken (I bought chicken tenders so I could just cut them up and cook them), carrots, celery, chicken broth, and of course noodles. I love egg noodles but couldn't figure out where to find them at the local Kroger, so I bought some little round noodles called ditalini. (Of course, when I started making the soup I nearly forgot about the noodles altogether, so everything was ready to go except for the pasta)

So anyway, tonight I made my soup. I started with the chicken, which I cut up into chunks and tossed in a pot with some olive oil, rosemary, and basil. While in the pot, I put some salt and pepper on the chicken. Then I stirred it all around and let the chicken cook itself through. Easy.

Here's the chicken, nearly ready to be put in the soup. It already smelled great!

Meanwhile, I poured all of my Swanson's chicken broth into a large pot and got that going. Once the chicken was ready, I put it right into the broth. Added some more rosemary, basil, salt and pepper, and then started on the vegetables. I washed some celery stocks and carrots sticks, peeled the carrots, and chopped everything up to add to the soup.

Everything was looking good and I was getting ready to call it quits when I realized I was missing the noodle part of my chicken noodle soup. So I cooked up the pasta and added it to the mix and called it good.

The carrots and chicken sunk to the bottom, but everything is good to go...I thought.

I did notice that by not pre-cooking the vegetables, they are still fairly crunchy in the soup. If you like that, go for it. If you prefer mushier veggies in a soup, however, definitely cook the vegetables prior to adding them to the soup. Anyway, the flavor is rich and delicious, especially the chicken which has nice seasoning due to being cooked with the spices.

This dinner was a bit more time-intensive, but the wonderful thing about making my own soup is that I'm guaranteed to have the things I like in it; the chicken was cut in a way so as to get rid of any fat or gristle that I refuse to eat (I often throw away chicken in soup if it "looks funny"). Plus, by making an entire pot, I still have quite a bit of soup left over, which I can now freeze for future use. Another culinary success.

Bon apetit!