Comfort Foods on Sick Days

Is there anything better than a nice pot of homemade chicken noodle soup when you're miserable with the cold or flu?  It's such a comfort food.  I love to make huge pots of homemade soup during the winter, then freeze some for those days when you feel so yucky that you just don't want to be in the kitchen.  Just don't freeze any of the homemade noodles with it, for some reason I just don't think those freeze very well. But I could be wrong about that, so if someone knows then please let me know! :D

My homemade chicken noodle soup with homemade noodles!  Yum!

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

This is an intuitive recipe for me so the amounts aren't specific, I just wing it based on how much I have.  Sometimes I add herbes de provence to the broth and the noodle dough but you can add any sort of spices you like to it, my soups never taste exactly alike~ it's a very easy, forgiving sort of recipe ~ just play around with it until it tastes the way you like it.

For the soup:
1 rotisserie chicken from the deli
celery
carrots
chicken bouillon {or other spices such as herbes de provence, celery salt and onion powder or whatever flavorings you'd like}
water
sea salt and pepper, to taste

For the noodles:
eggs
flour
sea salt

For the soup:  Pick the meat off the chicken and reserve for later.  Place the carcass in a pot of water with enough water to cover.  Boil and simmer for a while.  Pull carcass out and reserve the broth.  To the broth add the chicken pieces, carrots, celery, chicken bouillon, salt and pepper and any other seasonings to taste.  Simmer for a few hours until carrots and celery are nice and soft.

{Time saver tip:  Sometimes I steam the carrots and celery while the carcass is simmering so that they're ready to go back into the broth once it has been strained}.

For the noodles:  Right before you are ready to serve the soup, make your noodles by scrambling an egg or two in a bowl with a little bit of salt.  Add just enough flour until the eggs get doughy.  Roll the dough out on the counter and slice into long thin strands ~ they will get bigger once you cook them in the soup.  {A rotary noodle cutter or these KitchenAid attachments make it super easy and fast too!}.  Throw your noodles into the pot and let it simmer for about 7 or 8 minutes to cook the noodles.  Then serve and enjoy!

Now if you've frozen some for later use, then it's easy to feel comforted with a nice bowl of soup and apple juice when you're down and out {like I may or may not be right now!  Ok, I am.  Someone please pass me a box of tissues or just cut off my nose already!}.