Chicken Noodle Soup

Hello, friends!  It's been a minute since I've made a blog post - almost 3 years!  Most of that time, I can blame not having a computer for my lack of posts.  I just felt a push today to get this soup recipe posted on my blog, so here I am.  I found myself coming back to my own blog for recipes I've posted over the years, and I definitely didn't want to lose this one!

Our family has had its first round of seasonal colds.  The only thing that sounded good for days was chicken noodle soup.  I didn't have much energy to make any, but as soon as I started getting my energy back, chicken noodle soup was the only thing on my brain!  I went to my reliable recipe source, Pinterest, and found a recipe that looked exactly like what I was wanting.

You can find the original recipe here @ DamnDelicious.  It has amazing reviews!  Her recipe includes adding dill, and that's a flavor I personally hate, so it was not included in my version.  She also uses bone in chicken breast, and that wasn't even an option at my store.  I prefer to make my own chicken broth using Better Than Bullion chicken flavoring and water, so that was another teensy change I made.  Lastly, I will eat onion and celery if they are "diced" well = pulverized.  I love the flavor they add but I definitely don't like seeing chunks of them floating in my soup :)

This recipe is a WINNER!  It will be on my cold weather menu rotation from now on!  Hope you love it as much as my family did!

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 carrots, peeled and diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 8 cups water 
• Better Than Bullion chicken 
• 2 bay leaves
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 1/2 pounds bone-less, skinless chicken breasts
• 2 1/2 cups wide egg noodles
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley leaves
• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice (or bottled if your store is out of lemons like mine was!)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Melt butter in a large stockpot over medium heat. Add onion, carrots and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 3-4 minutes. Stir in garlic until fragrant, about 1 minute.
2. Whisk in chicken stock and bay leaves; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Add chicken; simmer, covered, until the chicken is cooked through, about 30-40 minutes. Remove chicken and let cool before dicing into bite-size pieces, discarding bones.
3. Stir in chicken and pasta and cook until tender, about 6-7 minutes.
4. Remove from heat; stir in parsley and lemon juice, season with salt and pepper to taste.
5. Serve immediately.

Onion & Celery chopped as little as my chopper would chop :)

Leftovers = my lunch for days!