Today's recipe always reminds me
of my occasionally deceptive shenanigans as a kid.
So how did this easy, comforting
and creamy chicken noodle soup arise
from some of my favorite movie scenes?
I'm Erin from wellplated.com.
Let's make this easy, homemade chicken noodle soup together
and find out.
(lively music)
This homemade creamy chicken noodle soup starts out
with the trifecta of so many classic soup recipes,
and that is onion, carrots, and celery.
I also love to make my recipes on the healthy side,
and a big part of that is sneaking in some extra vegetables.
So I like to throw in a carrot or two
beyond what you would find
in other chicken noodle soup recipes.
So, you know, that I conic scene in a movie
or TV where a kid holds a thermometer up to a light bulb
or dips it in hot water to fake a temperature
and then get to stay home from school sick.
Brilliant, my nine year old self said.
I saw that and a light bulb went off in my head,
pun totally intended.
I think you can see where this is going.
To start off the base of our soup I'm heating some oil
in a Dutch oven
and then I'm going to add our vegetable trio.
These I'm going to sauté
until the vegetables start to soften.
That will take about seven minutes.
Our vegetables are starting to get soft.
So now I'm going to add some garlic.
I like to wait to add the garlic
because if you add it too soon, it can burn
and that will put an off taste in your entire soup.
We do not want that.
You'll be able to smell the garlic right away.
One of the best smells in the kitchen.
After about 30 seconds, it's time to add the flour.
As I said, this is a creamy chicken noodle soup,
and the flour is part of what helps to thicken the broth.
While I love a good classic chicken noodle soup.
Sometimes it just doesn't satisfy me
the way that a slightly richer and creamier soup does,
especially if we're having it for dinner.
Just wanna stir and cook the flour
until all of the white bits disappear.
If it starts to look a little dry,
which this is right now.
You could just drizzle in a little bit more olive oil.
This will take about a minute.
Our flour has turned a light golden brown,
and it almost smells a little bit nutty,
which tells me it is time to add the broth.
You wanna splash it in a little bit at a time
and stir constantly.
That will make sure that you don't have any lumps.
We'll be using eight cups of chicken broth total.
If you are on top of it
and have your own homemade chicken stock, that is amazing.
I am not quite that organized.
So I'm just using the store-bought kind.
It's still going to taste great
with all of the other flavors that we're adding.
This is going to seem like a lot of broth,
but because we'll be cooking our noodles directly
in the soup, it needs a lot of liquid.
There's the first four cups.
Here comes the next four.
Once you have the base going
and you're sure that it's gonna be smooth,
you can add the broth a little bit more quickly.
Just make sure you don't end up wearing it.
All right.
From here I'm going to crank up the heat
and bring this to a simmer.
Now that this has come to a low boil/rapid simmer,
I'm going to partially cover the pot
and then turn down the heat.
You want to maintain a gentle simmer for 10 minutes.
So thanks to those inspirational movie and TV scenes,
my sly maneuver allowed me to stay home sick from school.
I watched Nickelodeon for hours.
It was the dream.
Eventually, though, my mom caught on
and back to school I went.
When we're grownups there's no secret tricks like this
that allow us to be able to pretend to be sick.
Really, you just have a lot of responsibility,
jobs to take care of, children who need you.
And that is why I wanted to come up with an easy recipe
for a comforting homemade chicken noodle soup
for those rougher days.
I'm adding all of the final ingredients.
We have some oregano and pepper for flavor
along with a little bit of salt.
I added some cooked, shredded chicken.
My favorite way to cook it super easily is just to boil it
and then shred it.
An even easier shortcut is to pick up a rotisserie chicken
from the grocery store and shred that.
No shame in that game.
Now I've added some evaporated milk,
that makes this soup taste super creamy
without the need for heavy cream.
So it's a little bit on the healthier side.
And then I added two and a half cups
of whole wheat dumpling noodles.
I like to cook those right in the pot.
One, because it saves me an extra dish.
And two, because the pasta
is actually going to thicken our sauce up even more.
We're going to crank up the heat one more time,
get this back to a boil and then let it boil
until the pasta is al dente.
That will take about 10 minutes.
Our noodles are nice and al dente.
The soup is looking rich and creamy.
Do yourself a favor, do not wait
until you are feeling under the weather to make this.
It's great to store in your freezer
for a chilly night ahead.
But as you can see, it comes together quickly enough
in fewer than 30 minutes that you can pull it together
on even the most hectic evenings.
And the creamy broth, to me,
this is just a step above your average chicken noodle soup.
If you love creamy, veggie loaded soups,
be sure to check out my creamy mushroom soup
Now that is well plated.