Here comes fall: Time for chicken noodle soup

When the first sickness of the season arrived in the household this weekend, I took it as a signal to make a pot chicken noodle soup. There are many chicken noodle soup recipes that are absolutely delicious. This one is a favorite because it’s tasty—but it’s also easy and quick.

Thank goodness for rotisserie chickens that are just waiting to become chicken noodle soup.

This is a flexible recipe and you can always add more vegetables or extra noodles. But it makes a great, hearty pot. And sometimes you just need a bowl of chicken noodle soup.

So, here you go:

Chicken Noodle Soup

Ingredients

• 4-5 stalks of celery, chopped
• 1 sweet yellow onion, chopped
• 3-4 carrots, peeled and chopped or 10-12 baby carrots, chopped
• 2-3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 Tbsp dried thyme (you can use either powdered or leaves)
• 1 rotisserie chicken
• 2 48-ounce containers of chicken broth
• 1 bag of egg noodles
• Salt and pepper

Directions

Chop the celery, onion, and carrots and place in a large pot. Sauté in olive oil with salt and pepper over medium heat until the onion is translucent. As the carrots start to soften, add the thyme and keep sautéing. When the onions are translucent, add the garlic and cook for one minute.

While the celery, onion, and carrots are cooking, pull the chicken meat off the rotisserie chicken and cut or shred into bite-size pieces.

After you’ve added the garlic to the pot and cooked for one minute, add the chicken and both 48-ounce containers of chicken broth. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.

Once the pot is boiling, add the noodles, and cook them for 10 minutes. Sometimes the pasta soaks up so much of the broth that you need to add a cup or two of water to the pot.

The soup stores well for leftovers the next day, but you may need to add water or chicken broth when you reheat it on the stove. The noodles really soak up the broth overnight.

Of course, you don’t need a liturgical reason to serve a steaming pot of soup for dinner, but this week we celebrate the feast of St. Matthew, and we are probably all familiar with the line from his book of the Gospel, “For I was hungry and you gave me food.”

So, have a bowl for yourself and share one with someone else—and enjoy!

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