Grandma's Chicken Soup

I have successfully made my grandmother's chicken soup!! (well pretty close anyway).
My grandmother Irene would make chicken noodle soup and used some surprising ingredients that are both nutritious and give the soup a wonderful flavor I always remembered as a child. Grandma would make hers in a large pot on the stove all day of course, mine is broken into two- so I could utilize the ever versatile (and my most prized cooking vessel ever) crock pot.

Miss you grandma

* 1 (3 pound) whole chicken (mine was pre-quartered which helped expedite things)

* 3/4-1 cup baby carrots (about two handfuls)

* 2 Stalks of celery- chopped
* 1/2 large onion diced
* Parsnip (1 large,peeled and chopped)
* Turnip (1-2 diced into larger chunks)
* 1/2-3/4 cup peeled and diced potatoes
* Handful of fresh parsley
* 1 package of egg noodles
* water to cover
* salt and pepper to taste
* 1 chicken bouillon cube (optional)

Part 1 (night before you intend to have chicken soup for supper)
Directions

1. In a large pot cover the chicken with cold water, and add some salt and pepper and the bouillon cube. Heat and simmer, uncovered, until the chicken meat falls off of the bones. * Now I am pretty sure my grandmother used the entire chicken, however I am a bit of a sissy with gizzards, so my chicken was without). This took 45 minutes- 1 hour but it was with little to no maintenance so I was able to go about the evening without giving the boiling chicken much attention.

2. Once chicken is fully cooked (and you'll know, stick a fork into the leg and come up with a shred of meat as the rest falls back into the pot and off the bone.... and you're there). Remove the chicken from the water and remove meat from the bones placing in a storage container, add a bit of the chicken stock from the pot to keep meat moist. (I would recommend after cooling- but I was impatient and burnt my fingers picking the meat from the bones while it was hot... I remember my husband hesitantly asking, can we wait till it cools, or did your grandma not do it that way- :p). You have now successfully made your own chicken stock as well! Pour the stock into a large tall container (I used an iced tea pitcher) and refrigerate, along with the chicken.

3. Now if you are chipper in the morning, or are in no hurry to get out of the house in the morning (with a 3 year old in tow) you can stop here. All of the chopping can be done in the morning. For me, I chopped all of the vegetables for the soup with exception of the potatoes and parsley and mixed them together in another storage container for the night.

Day2
1. My mornings are bleary eyed, chaotic and we are lucky to get out the door in one piece hence my prep the night before.
Add cooked chicken, stock, chopped veggies. You will need to peel and dice 2-3 potatoes and grab and rinse the parsley but otherwise you a good to dump everything in the crock pot, leaving room for approx. 1 cup of water in addition to the chicken stock.
Set crock pot to low for 6-8 hours (typical work/school day, so by the time I am home it is ready!).

2. My grandmother always cooked the egg noodles separately, and poured the soup over them, much like spaghetti, it is a tradition I too adopted as adding them earlier on would have resulted in soggy noodles and starchy soup. I cooked egg noodles separately using salt sparingly when boiling given their addition to the chicken soup. Once finished and strained I portioned out bowls of noodles (1/2 way) and ladled hot chicken soup over them. I had enough to freeze two large servings (2-3 people) and refrigerate two mini servings for my daughter/me.

Ta-da! Enjoy :0)