a lovely living

Is there anyone that’s not a fan of a piping hot bowl of chicken noodle soup? I was fighting a head cold this week and thankfully I had already had this meal planned out for our family. Talk about timing. For such a classic dish, there must be a gazillion recipes you can find for Chicken Noodle Soup. But what I love about this one is that it’s done in the crockpot. And it tastes pretty darn good! Maybe one day I’ll have the time to make stock from scratch and whatnot, but I don’t see that day anywhere in my near future. So, in the meantime I’ll take advantage of the fact that I can throw all of the ingredients into a pot, enjoy the aroma all day long, have time to spend with my children and sit down to a bowl of delicious soup come dinner time. For those of you that are waiting around for the impending snow this weekend, you may want to add chicken and noodles to your milk and bread list ;)

Chicken Noodle Soup adapted from Cooking Classy:

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts
5 medium carrots, peeled and chopped (1 3/4 cups)
1 medium yellow onion, chopped (1 1/2 cups)
4 stalks celery, chopped (1 1/4 cups)
3 – 5 cloves garlic, minced
3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
6 cups low-sodium chicken broth (3 – 15 oz cans)
1 cup water
3/4 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried rosemary, crushed
2 bay leaves
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 cups uncooked wide egg noodles
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
Saltine crackers for serving

Directions

To a slow cooker, add chicken (un-cut), diced carrots, onion, celery, and garlic.

Drizzle olive oil over top then add in chicken broth, water, thyme, rosemary, bay leaves and season with salt and pepper to taste. Cover and cook on low heat 6 – 7 hours.

Remove cooked chicken and allow to rest 10 minutes, then dice into bite size pieces. Meanwhile, add egg noodles and parsley to slow cooker.* Increase temperature to high, cover and cook 10 minutes longer (or until noodles are tender).

Toss in cooked, diced chicken. Serve warm with saltine crackers if desired.

*I typically cook my noodles separately which allows me to make egg noodles as well as gluten free noodles for my husband. It also keeps the noodles from getting soggy should you happen to have leftovers!