Chicken Noodle Soup

Do you ever have those days when the only effort you can muster to get a meal on the table is some mindless chopping and stirring? When you're so tired that even eating a meal feels like running a marathon? Where any more physical excursion other than lifting a spoon to your mouth, would make you cry? Where all you can cope with is a comforting and unchallenging dish where one mouthful of food is reassuringly the same as the one that came before it, and the one that came before that? I had one of those days.


Chicken Noodle Soup
from The Pioneer Woman
Serves 6

1 whole Free Range chicken
3 carrots, 2 diced, 1 cut in half
3 stalks celery, 2 diced, 1 cut in half
1 onion, cut in half, skin left on

1 head of garlic, cut in half horizontally
2 teaspoons sea salt flakes
1 teaspoons turmeric
1/4 teaspoon white pepper

2or 3 sprigs fresh thyme
2 teaspoons parsley flakes
250g egg noodles (I used tagliatelle), broken into approx. 4cm long peices (don't get your ruler out, we're too tired for that)
3 tablespoons corn flour

Cut the leg sections off the chicken, then cut them at the joint so that you have two legs and two thighs. Cut the wings of the body and leave the rest of the cage intact.

Put the halved carrot and celery stick in a large stockpot. Add the halved onion and garlic. Pour in 3 litres of cold water and put the pot on a medium heat. Once boiling, turn the heat right down as low as it will go and add the chicken. Make sure the pot does not boil again, but just simmers ever so gently. This will keep the chicken tender and juicy. Simmer for 30 minutes.

Remove chicken from pot with a slotted spoon. With two forks, remove as much meat from the bones as you can, slightly shredding the meat in the process. Put the meat into a sealed container with a little of the broth over the top (about half a cup) and put it in the refrigerator until it is time the add it to the soup. Return the bones to the broth and simmer on low, covered, for 45 minutes. Top the water up occasionally with some boiled water from the kettle if the level starts to drop.

Remove bones from broth with a slotted spoon. Sieve the broth and add it back to the clean stockpot.

Add the diced carrots and celery to the pot, followed by the herbs and spices. Stir to combine and simmer for twenty minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Remove the thyme sprigs.

Increase heat and add the salt and the noodles. Cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until the noodles are cooked.

Add the chicken back to the pot.

Mix the corn flour with a little cold water. Stir until smooth. Pour into soup, stir to combine, and simmer for another 5 minutes, or until broth thickens a bit. Test and adjust seasonings as needed.