clean eats | whole wheat egg noodle chicken soup

I love to cook and am always trying to find ways to use my leftovers. This gives me the ability to stretch my creative muscles and to stretch my budget. This soup is a favorite of mine. It uses everything you have laying around in your cabinets, freezer and fridge. It’s the perfect super hardy meal to make when winter won’t quit trying to take over spring like it has this year.

I personally whip up this recipe pretty much every time I make a whole chicken. I bake my chicken the first day and we enjoy it, sometimes I'll make a sandwich or 2 the next day, then I make soup!

>>> INGREDIENTS <<<

Leftover whole chicken still on the bone

1 pound of any frozen veg you have on hand

Approximately 2 gallons water

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1 whole minced onion

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 and 1/2 tablespoons salt, or to taste

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour + extra for dusting

Another 1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

>>> DIRECTIONS <<<

You’re going to want to leave about 9-10 hours to make this soup happen. It’s an awesome, totally free weekend all day meal that pretty much slowly makes itself. First you are going to take a large pot and fill it up with around 2 gallons of water. Take your fully cooked leftover chicken and add it to the pot. Just make sure the water is at least covering your chicken. Bring to a boil then cover and reduce to medium or low and continue to simmer for 8 hours.

Around the 7.5 hour mark, start to prep your pasta. In a large bowl mix together your pastry flour, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and eggs. Then wrap in saran wrap and throw it in the fridge for 30 minutes.

When your 8 hours is up take another pot and a colander and drain the chicken stock away from all of the chicken. 

Let the chicken set aside in the colander to cool while you heat the extra virgin olive oil on medium high heat. Sautee your onion and garlic for about 2 minutes or until becoming golden. Add your homemade chicken stock back into the pot and leave over medium heat.

Prep your vegetables. I had some corn, frozen carrots and peas on hand. You can use anything you like, even lima beans.

Then pick through your cooled chicken by hand and remove all the good pieces of meat. Toss both the vegetables and the chicken into the broth and bring everything back to a boil, cover, reduce the heat and continue to simmer 30 more minutes.

Lay out some pastry flour on a clean work service and toss on your egg noodle dough. Dust the top side with more flour. Then you want to continue to press, flip and dust with flour until you have the dough hand rolled pretty large. This is to make sure nothing sticks to the counter. 

Use plenty of pastry flour! Then roll super thin, anywhere from a 1/4 inch to paper thin depending on your preference. Use a pizza cutter to cut the dough into noodle strips.

Let the dough sit for 10 minutes to dry up a little. Then toss them into your soup and cook for approximately 10 minutes. They cook very fast and you’ll know they are done when they are all floating. Then add the rest of the salt a half tablespoon at a time until the saltiness is just right for you. Every time I use egg noodles, 1 and a 1/2 tablespoons ends up being perfect for me, but take your time to add, mix and taste to be sure it fits your taste. Then just serve and enjoy!