Thanksgiving Leftovers - Round 1....Noodles!

Chicken Noodle Soup

Cozy, cheerful, inexpensive, simple and yummy.  All words I would use to describe chicken noodle soup.  It was only earlier this year that I tried to make this on my own from scratch.  Well....with the help of a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store and stock in a box, but mostly from scratch for this first timer.  It was delicious and lasted for several meals.

A week or so after Thanksgiving, I was staring into my almost bare vegetable drawer and was inspired by the couple stalks of celery and two lone carrots hanging out in there together.  Who knew inspiration would hit from celery and carrots?  I had onions leftover along with some thyme, rosemary, a lemon and chicken stock.  I also had some chicken breasts that needed to be used.  One quick trip to the grocery store (which is thankfully less than a mile from my house) for some egg noodles and I was ready to cook!

This time I decided to make the chicken myself instead of using a rotisserie from the store.  A quick online search of boiled chicken provided me with the basic idea of how to do it.  I had never boiled my chicken before.  Honestly it sounded a little unappealing to me.

Turns out, if you use seasonings, herbs and vegetables, it makes for a very juicy, quick and easy way to prepare chicken breasts!

Ingredients:

• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• S&P
• EVOO
• 1/2 lemon
• Sprig of rosemary
• Couple of sprigs of thyme
• 1 onion
• 1 carrot, peeled
• 1 stalk of celery, with their leafy tops
• Chicken stock in a box (I use low sodium or no salt added kind)
• 1 bay leaf
• Egg noodles (I found whole wheat egg noodles at the grocery store and got very excited but feel free to use white noodles if you prefer)

Instructions:

• Season chicken breasts with S&P.  Put in a medium size pot along with lemon slices, rosemary, thyme and the scraps of the carrot, celery and onion.  
• Cover with water and bring to a boil.  
• Once boiling, knock it back to a simmer and cover until cooked through.  Cook times depend on the size of the chicken breasts but mine took roughly 10 minutes.  Check with digital meat thermometer to get to 160 degrees.
• Take chicken out and set aside to cool.
• Drain the liquid the chicken was cooked in.  Save the liquid and discard the scrap veggie pieces.
• While chicken is cooking, dice onion, carrot and celery into small pieces. 
• After chicken is cool to handle, shred with two forks or your hands.
• Sautee the veggies with some EVOO in a big pot until the veggies are soft, about 5 minutes.  
• Add bay leaf and shredded chicken.
• Add reserved liquid you cooked the chicken in.
• Add one box of chicken stock.  If you want to stretch a buck, you can add less stock and some more water.
• Add egg noodles (I used half the bag).  Bring whole pot to a soft boil and cook until noodles are tender, about 8 minutes (check for desired done-ness).
• I like to add a fresh squeeze of lemon at the end to brighten it up along with some additional thyme before I serve.  If I had parsley around I would add that as well.
• Serve yourself a big bowl of comfort alongside some saltines and enjoy!

You're not getting that out of any can!  Big pieces of all white meat chicken, not the weird little bits of mystery chicken that comes out of a can.  Easy way to use up leftover veggies and other Thanksgiving ingredients.  Also wonderful for a quick lunch or weeknight meal.