1 whole fully-cooked grocery store rotisserie chicken
3 medium onions
4 Tablespoons butter
1 pound carrots
1 celery stalk or package of two celery hearts
1 Tablespoon thyme
1 Tablespoon oregano
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
2-48 ounce cans of chicken broth
double batch of Grandma's Homemade Noodles
Take your beautiful rotisserie chicken and pull all the meat off the bones and skin, placing every scrap of that tender meat in a bowl. Don't worry about tearing it into bite-size pieces; we'll get to that later. Set these succulent chicken chunks aside.
Place a large soup pot on low-medium heat and begin melting the butter. As it slowly melts, chop the onions. Place them in the melted butter and let them saute. Wash the celery and cut it into slices; add to the onion and stir. Peel the carrots and slice them into coins.
Add them to the onions and celery, stirring here and there as they saute, too. Sprinkle on the thyme, add the bay leaves, and give it a good stir, keeping all the veggies evenly coated with the butter.
Like all herbs, fresh oregano is always better than dried. Luckily, I had some on hand, so I de-leafed a few sprigs and placed the leaves in a prep bowl. Then I took my kitchen shears and chopped the oregano into tiny pieces. Add the oregano to the pot of goodies and, of course, stir it in.
Then do the same chopping technique to the chicken in its bowl. Add the chopped chicken to the pot and stir some more. This recipe is really an exercise in stirring. Feel the burn!
By this time, especially if you are a slowpoke peeler and chopper like me, the onions are translucent; the carrots are softening but still firm. Add the broth, salt, and pepper and increase the heat to medium-high, bringing the soup to a slight boil. Stir in the dried or almost-dried double batch of Grandma's Homemade Noodles to the soup and continue to cook at a slow boil.
While the noodles are soaking up all the scrumptious flavors of your soup while they bloat to homestyle delight, start preparing your bread. No matter what soup we make, broiled buttered ciabatta is a constant for us. With great care and a wonderful bread knife, saw your ciabatta into slices about 3/4" thick. Slather on a little butter and place buttered side up on a baking sheet.
After the noodles have cooked for about 15-20 minutes, start taste-testing them for doneness when no one is looking. Your house will smell heavenly, so whoever sees you will want to sample, too. When the noodles are just about the right degree of softness/firmness, put your ciabatta about 4-5" below the broiler flame in your oven. They usually take about 5 minutes to develop a nice shade of golden brown. Keep an eye on them, though, and remove when they look like they could take the blue ribbon in a toast-making contest.
This recipe makes about eight generous bowls of soup - plenty for seconds and delicious leftovers!
Enjoy!
Kimmers
3 medium onions
4 Tablespoons butter
1 pound carrots
1 celery stalk or package of two celery hearts
1 Tablespoon thyme
1 Tablespoon oregano
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
2-48 ounce cans of chicken broth
double batch of Grandma's Homemade Noodles
Take your beautiful rotisserie chicken and pull all the meat off the bones and skin, placing every scrap of that tender meat in a bowl. Don't worry about tearing it into bite-size pieces; we'll get to that later. Set these succulent chicken chunks aside.
Place a large soup pot on low-medium heat and begin melting the butter. As it slowly melts, chop the onions. Place them in the melted butter and let them saute. Wash the celery and cut it into slices; add to the onion and stir. Peel the carrots and slice them into coins.
Add them to the onions and celery, stirring here and there as they saute, too. Sprinkle on the thyme, add the bay leaves, and give it a good stir, keeping all the veggies evenly coated with the butter.
Like all herbs, fresh oregano is always better than dried. Luckily, I had some on hand, so I de-leafed a few sprigs and placed the leaves in a prep bowl. Then I took my kitchen shears and chopped the oregano into tiny pieces. Add the oregano to the pot of goodies and, of course, stir it in.
Then do the same chopping technique to the chicken in its bowl. Add the chopped chicken to the pot and stir some more. This recipe is really an exercise in stirring. Feel the burn!
By this time, especially if you are a slowpoke peeler and chopper like me, the onions are translucent; the carrots are softening but still firm. Add the broth, salt, and pepper and increase the heat to medium-high, bringing the soup to a slight boil. Stir in the dried or almost-dried double batch of Grandma's Homemade Noodles to the soup and continue to cook at a slow boil.
While the noodles are soaking up all the scrumptious flavors of your soup while they bloat to homestyle delight, start preparing your bread. No matter what soup we make, broiled buttered ciabatta is a constant for us. With great care and a wonderful bread knife, saw your ciabatta into slices about 3/4" thick. Slather on a little butter and place buttered side up on a baking sheet.
After the noodles have cooked for about 15-20 minutes, start taste-testing them for doneness when no one is looking. Your house will smell heavenly, so whoever sees you will want to sample, too. When the noodles are just about the right degree of softness/firmness, put your ciabatta about 4-5" below the broiler flame in your oven. They usually take about 5 minutes to develop a nice shade of golden brown. Keep an eye on them, though, and remove when they look like they could take the blue ribbon in a toast-making contest.
This recipe makes about eight generous bowls of soup - plenty for seconds and delicious leftovers!
Enjoy!
Kimmers