The Cure for the Common Cold

I can't be certain, but I'm pretty sure that this will in fact cure colds and probably other diseases. I do know for sure that this soup is better than your mother's, or at least as good as hers. I know it's true because my mom trusted me to make it and she even liked it. The secret to extremely simple, intensely flavorful chicken noodle soup is your oven. Yes, you will need your stove as well, but roasting is the most important part as I've mentioned before.

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken plus 4  drumsticks
3 onions
6 carrots
6 celery stalks
1/2 bag of dumpling egg noodles

This is the color of the stock. This is what you want. Light stock will make you an extremely okay soup. This dark stock will make you the best chicken noodle soup you've ever tasted, and it couldn't be easier to make. Step one: preheat your oven to 425 degrees. I'm confident there will be no problems with that. Add the whole chicken and the drumsticks to a large stockpot (the extra drumsticks are optional, but they'll help boost the chicken flavor). Next quarter two onions, cut three carrots and three stocks of celery into thirds, and add that to the stockpot. Place all of that goodness in the oven, and let it get deliciously golden brown. It will take awhile, but you want to make sure the chicken, and all of the vegetables are golden. The onions may turn  black in some spots; don't worry about that. Also here's a free tip I just learned: if you leave the onion skins on your stock will be even darker.

When that happens, be smart. Don't be like me. Take the chicken out and cut off both breasts. If you leave them on, they will get completely dried out while simmer in the stock, which, I know, sounds weird. How does something become dry while sitting in liquid? I don't know, but that's what happens. Whether you use the meat in the soup is completely up to you. With the added drumsticks, I had plenty of meat, so I used the breast meat for other things. I'm talking to you, Chicken Salad. After the breasts have been removed, fill the pot with water and let it simmer for around four hours. 

After four hours, we have pure gold. Strain everything and keep only the chicken. Aromatics are cheap and we don't want mushy vegetables in our soup. Do not try to pick the chicken from the bones. You'll burn your fingers. Trust me. I've made that mistake once or twice or way too many, so that you don't have to. Put the chicken somewhere cold, and while you wait for it to cool chop an onion, three carrots, and three stalks of celery.

Let the vegetables simmer in the stock for an hour, or until they're nice and tender but not mushy. At that point you can cook your pasta. Cook it separately. That way everyone can have as many noodles as they want, and the stock and vegetable mixture can be used for something else if you get tired of leftover soup. When the noodles are done, put them in a bowl and add the liquid to get THIS!!

Okay that looks like a big bowl of broth with noodles in it. I SWEAR I put vegetables in. If you look at the picture up top there's even evidence of vegetables.

Make this. There's like a whole series of books about why you should. Or maybe that's not what they're about. I don't actually know. I mentioned leftovers. Do you like pot pies? Because I made a pot pie with the leftovers. You can add roux, peas, corn, and potatoes and have perfect pot pie filling. I've just given you two meal suggestions, so I think we're done here.