Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup on a Lazy Sunday

Dear Readers,

I’m sorry to say I’ve been a disappointment this weekend. My PLAN was to go out Saturday night, maybe even go to Valpo to the beach, but it all fell apart because I could not even get out of bed yesterday. So, I didn’t. But, 12 hours of sleep later, I’m starting to feel a bit better. Maybe, in the future, when I’m not feeling well, I won’t go out til 3am and drink lots of beer. Maybe, just maybe, that didn’t help.

However, had I not gone out (and had a great time too) I would not have discovered the most delicious bar food ever. I’m not sure EXACTLY what it’s called (promise, I’ll get back to you). But it’s definitely some version of a Pobre. Anything a lo pobre means with french fries,  sauteed onions, and a fried egg. You could have lomo a lo pobre, bistec a lo pobre or even pollo a lo pobre. You can’t go wrong. I will definitely dedicate a post solely to this menu item…but for now all I can say is they brought out a huge plate of french fries with fried onions, sausage, beef and two fried eggs and I almost passed out from deliciousness overload and the amount of garbage in my tummy.

Well, it finally got to me. The grease, the beer, the allergies, and since Saturday morning I’ve been a sad mess. But, today, I was feeling a bit better and ventured out with my housemate Amanda to go to La Vega. That’s right…again. This time, to buy things! And oh boy did I buy things.

I think my total count looked like this:

a whole chicken (which I almost left there)

an eggplant

a red pepper

basil

parsley

ginger

cumin

oregano

celery (tons)

carrots (tons)

paprika

pan del dia

and…some juice, soy sauce, rice, and chocolate for good measure.

Carrying groceries is hard work! I think by the time I leave, I’m gonna be ripped from hauling groceries all over the city. I finally got my loot home and started getting ready to make my first batch of homemade chicken noodle soup! That’s right, you heard me. My FIRST. I’ve never made it from a whole chicken. But, it was super easy. Took about two hours, but it was fantastic. No, there is nothing Chilean about chicken noodle soup (Chicklean?) but I’m gonna blog it anyway. I’m telling you, from scratch is the best! Don’t worry, it’s easy. You can put a chicken in a pot, right?

Grace’s Made From Scratch Sopa de Pollo

1 whole chicken (innards removed)

4 stalks on celery, chopped

3 large carrots, chopped

1 whole  yellow onion, diced

4-12 cups of water

4 tablespoons oregano

2-4 tablespoons black pepper

4 tablespoons of salt

3 tablespoons of lemon juice

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1/4 cup of parsley, chopped

1/4 basil, chopped

1/4 pack of spiral noodles(or whatever), cooked and drained

DIRECTIONS:

First, make the pasta! You know..follow the package. Then set the cooked pasta aside.

Put the whole chicken in a large pot (as big as you can get!) with half the carrots, half the celery, 2 tablespoons of oregano,  2 tablespoons of salt,  2 tablespoons of pepper and the garlic. Add water until the liquid reaches about an inch or so from the top. You want it full, but so it won’t bubble over when you boil it (Sorry, these directions are vague, and mostly just practical, but I wanted to make it easy for anybody). Get the water to a slow boil, and then leave it for at least an hour with the lid on. After about 40 minutes, turn the chicken over so it gets cooked on all sides. After about an hour and half, it should be totally cooked and the broth should have those delightful yellow oil spots creating a mouth-watering smell in your kitchen.

Pour the liquid through a strainer into another pot. Take the chicken and cut it into bite size pieces and then add back to the new pot of clear stock. Add the rest of the celery and carrots. Then, add the onion, the rest of the spices, the pasta, and some lemon juice and simmer for about 10 minutes until the  veggies are cooked, but not too soft. Finally, add the chopped parsley and basil, and taste for salt.

My oh my!

Boilin’ ma chicken

Veggies

Doesn’t get much better than that..

Delish

Seriously, I already feel 1000000X better.

What’s your favorite homemade soup recipe?

Also, shout out to Andrea’s blog, Can You Stay for Dinner? where she did a post of a equally yummy looking chick’n’noodle.

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup