Chicken Noodle Soup

This soup was meant to be. Here's how it went down.

Last Sunday, while planning meals for the week, I had a strong craving for chicken noodle soup. Not Campbell's condensed chicken noodle soup (which, I'm ashamed to admit, I actually do like) but real chicken noodle soup. With chunks of carrot, and hearty noodles, and somewhat-greasy chicken :) Without telling Brett that this was one of my meals for the week (he isn't a soup kinda guy...) I went to the store and got everything I needed. The plan was to make it the next day, on a Monday.

Late on Sunday night, Brett started to feel strange. Icky. Upset stomach, headache. The next morning, he considered not going to work, but decided to tough it out. Needless to say, he spent his lunch break napping in his car and ate nothing but peanuts all day. Now, when a grown man eats nothing but peanuts, something is wrong.

Voile! How lucky is it that when he came home from work on Monday, I was able to say...."dinner is an enormous pot of chicken noodle soup!" He was thrilled, to say the least. He took three ibuprofen and a 2-hour nap. Upon waking, he was starrrrrving, and chowed down three big mugs of this soup. It must have done the trick, as he felt near-perfect the next morning.

And that's my saga of Brett getting sick and my delicious soup curing him. Try some before winter runs up!!

Chicken Noodle Soup

2 TBS butter

1 small onion, chopped

3 carrots, chopped

2 large celery stalks, chopped

5 cans broth (chicken or vegetable - I used a combo)

1 cooked rotisserie chicken (this is what makes it good! don't substitute :) )

2 small packages frozen yolk-free egg noodles

basil, oregano, salt, pepper

1. Spend about 15 minutes pulling all the meat off the rotisserie chicken and set aside. Make sure you don't get any little bones, and pull the big pieces apart. Go to town on it.

2. In large stockpot or dutch oven, cook onion, celery and carrots in butter until slightly tender.

3. Add broth and chicken to stockpot. Bring to a boil, and add egg noodles. Bring back to a low boil for approximately 20 minutes, before reducing to a simmer for another 30-45 minutes. Add seasonings as desired.