Have you been buying canned Organic Chicken Noodle Soup thinking you’re saving time and money? Does the celebrity chef on the label impress you? Someone in need of the best cure for a cold? Let’s make some from scratch in 45 minutes so you can be your home’s own celebrity chef!
One of my first Eat Up! Kitchen recipes was Scratch Made Chicken Soup. For that soup I aimed for a simple light broth and made the noodles from scratch. For this Chicken Noodle Soup I wanted to replicate grocery store from-the-can soup with all organic ingredients. We know organic is supposed to be better for us, the farm, and the environment. We also know it’s usually more expensive. Well, let’s just see how much more expensive it is to make a 100% Organic Chicken Noodle Soup at home that resembles the canned stuff.
Carrots. First of all, always buy whole organic carrots. Unlike their non-organic counterparts, organic carrots are sweet, delicious, and addictive. Second, I ask that you please join me in my earth-saving effort in boycotting those flavorless orange rocks they call “baby carrots”. #babycarrotsareforlosers #freindsdontletfriendseatbabycarrots #myorganicwholecarrotsbeatupyourbabycarrots
Check out this photo of the ingredients – this cost me $17.50. At Whole Foods. If you’re not all that interested in going all or partially organic, at least take note that real, healthy, wholesome soup doesn’t take much money or effort to make from scratch. In actuality, I didn’t use everything shown so it works out to around $13 worth of ingredients. This recipe should yield (at least) 8 servings which means it costs about $1.60 per bowl. That’s only $0.60 more than a can of plain old condensed Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup and a heck of a lot cheaper than the organic celebrity chef stuff.
Okay, what if you really like how the canned soup tastes? Gotcha. One – add more salt. Two – add a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce. I like my soup to taste like fresh vegetables and chicken more so than salt. I also like to water down my store bought low-sodium chicken broth with an equal part of water. So you may find that following this recipe to the T isn’t to your satisfaction. Simply add a half teaspoon of salt at a time until you like it. I’ve had good luck with adding a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce as well. It has saltiness, sweetness, acidity and a umaminess that I really like. While we’re discussing additions, a few dashes of Cayenne do a great job clearing out a head cold.
An even better way to make homemade Organic Chicken Noodle Soup would be to make your chicken broth from scratch. You can get a 5 lb. organic chicken for just a little more than the price of a pound of boneless skinless chicken breast. I’d recommend roasting the chicken first as opposed to poaching it whole in seasoned water. This allows excess fat to render in to your roasting pan instead of your soup broth. Plus you get to eat crispy chicken skin 🙂 Once roasted, remove most of the meat and reserve for the soup. Place the carcass with some celery and onions in a large stock pot and fill with water. Bring to a boil then reduce to a low simmer for a couple hours. The broth is done when any remaining meat is falling off the bone. Pour the broth in to a large strainer over another stock pot. Discard the leftovers and return the first pot to the stove top. At this point you have your own homemade chicken stock you can use in place of the store bought called for in this recipe. Once the reserved roast chicken meat has cooled you can use a couple forks to pull it apart in to bite size pieces for the soup. Use this instead of the chicken breast called for in the recipe.
This comes together a lot quicker than you might imagine. Sauté the carrots and celery with a couple teaspoons of salt and pepper in a large stock pot just until they’re tender. Add 6 cups of chicken broth and 6 cups of water (both room temp), a couple tablespoons of freshly minced parsley, and a half pound of egg noodles to the pot. Bring to a gentle simmer and taste for salt and pepper – I added about a tablespoon of salt. We’re only about 25 minutes in at this point. While the soup is coming to a simmer you can dice the chicken in to small pieces. For this recipe it’s important that they’re uniform and smaller than half-inch cubes. Once the noodles are done to your liking (I like them a little overcooked) turn off the heat and remove the pot from the stove top. Stir the chicken in to the soup and let it sit for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. All the heat in the liquid is more than enough to fully poach the chicken and kill off any bacteria without overcooking it. And there you have it, a whole pot of Organic Chicken Noodle Soup in less than an hour!
I really wanted to take a look at using all organic ingredients for this recipe. I don’t really stress over buying organic foods but when I specifically call for something to be organic in a recipe it’s because I know it tastes better. It’s remarkable how much better a dish can taste by just using fresh and local organic ingredients. And when you’re only working with a handful of ingredients I think it’s important to focus on using the best ingredients possible. Sometimes it is going to cost more money. In this case, with enough soup to feed a family for a couple days, the cost difference is negligible. I hope you give this soup a try and let me know how you like it!
Organic Chicken Noodle Soup
Ingredients
- 1 lbs. Organic Chicken Breast
- 6 cups Organic Chicken Broth
- 6 cups water
- 1 cup Organic Carrots finely diced
- 1 cup Organic Celery finely diced
- 2 tbs. Organic Parsley minced
- salt
- pepper
- vegetable oil
Instructions
- Sauté the carrots and celery with a tablespoon of vegetable oil and a couple teaspoons of salt and pepper in a large stock pot just until they're tender - about 10 minutes over medium low heat.
- Add 6 cups of chicken broth and 6 cups of water (both room temp), a couple tablespoons of freshly minced parsley, and a half pound of egg noodles to the pot. Bring to a gentle simmer and taste for salt and pepper.
- While the soup is coming to a simmer dice the chicken in to small 1/2 inch pieces.
- Once the noodles are done turn off the heat and remove the pot from the stove top. Stir the chicken in to the soup and let it sit for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
