I love chicken noodle soup. Its comforting, easy, and cheap. You can feed a ton of people off one pot; especially if you pair it with some grilled cheese sandwiches or crusty bread.
8 cups chicken stock (boxed is fine, but try making your own in a crockpot! sometime)
1 small bunch parsley (chopped)
1-2 cloves garlic (chopped fine) (depending on how much you like)
2-3 sprigs fresh thyme (or 1/2 tsp of dried)
1 med onion (diced or chunked - however you prefer)
1 - 2 carrots (chopped)
2 stalks celery (chopped)
1 cup orzo pasta (or try making your own noodles!)
1. Preheat oven to 400. Line a cookie sheet with tin foil. Drizzle chicken thighs with olive oil, salt and pepper on both sides and lay on cookie sheet skin side up. Line a second cookie sheet with tin foil and coat veggies with olive oil, salt and pepper. Place both cookie sheets in the oven. Roast the vegetables for 20 min or until as tender as you like. Roast the chicken for 35-40 min or until juices run clear.
Alternate 1. Fix the chicken the same way, but chop and saute the veggies in your soup pot until just starting to soften.
2. Put 8 cups of chicken stock in a large soup or stock pot and add the garlic. Bring to a boil and cook orzo according to box directions. Turn down the heat to low. When chicken has cooled to the point you can handle it, remove skin and pull chicken off of the bone. Shred or chop the chicken and add to the stock. Add vegetables to the stock along with parsley and thyme. Season soup to taste with salt and pepper.
I've found that roasting the chicken gives the soup a great flavor and makes the whole process much faster. Bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs are really cheap at the grocery store and really delicious. I usually save the bones to make more stock with later. You should also save the carrot tops, onion skins and ends, and celery ends for that purpose.
2. Put 8 cups of chicken stock in a large soup or stock pot and add the garlic. Bring to a boil and cook orzo according to box directions. Turn down the heat to low. When chicken has cooled to the point you can handle it, remove skin and pull chicken off of the bone. Shred or chop the chicken and add to the stock. Add vegetables to the stock along with parsley and thyme. Season soup to taste with salt and pepper.
I've found that roasting the chicken gives the soup a great flavor and makes the whole process much faster. Bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs are really cheap at the grocery store and really delicious. I usually save the bones to make more stock with later. You should also save the carrot tops, onion skins and ends, and celery ends for that purpose.
Orzo pasta seems to hold up better to being stored than most egg-type noodles and since I make big pots of soup for lunch for the week, that's important. If you plan on eating the pot right away, you could use pretty much any noodle you like. Roasting the vegetables is new to me, but adds some nice flavor when you get some caramelization going on. Alternately, you can just cook the veggies in the stock while the chicken is roasting. My sister swears this is the best chicken soup she's ever had. Its really easy and surprisingly fast too.
