Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup

I love soup. I especially love soup in the winter when I get home late from work and don't really have a lot of time or inclination to make a 5 course meal. I'm kinda done with the day and I have limited time to get everything that is screaming my name done--like laundry and Castle. We are currently navigating our way through Season 3 of Castle and it's a kick, so, you know--cooking or relaxing? How about a little bit of both.

This past year one of my cooking goals has been to master several go-to soups. Chicken Noodle Soup is one of them. I am happy to say that I have recently mastered Chicken Noodle Soup (I'll post the recipe later, but it's really pretty close to this new one I'm posting today) and I wanted to change it up a little bit, so Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup it was . . . but I decided that after I had already started making the Chicken Noodle Soup, it's how I roll sometimes: "this will be good, but this might be better, let's change up the recipe half way through."

I pressure cooked and shredded a voluminous amount of chicken last week and we have been using it on everything: lunches, dinners, and I can neither confirm nor deny whether I had chicken salad on celery for breakfast the other day, but I digress. Anyway--we still had some left and I needed to use it up, hence the chicken soup deal. The recipe I am including below will include using raw chicken if that is what you have, it's simple and straightforward. As you know with soup if you don't have a particular ingredient, that's ok it will work itself out.

As I mentioned, midway through cooking I decided to make it creamy. I Googled and came across a recipe blog: Cooking Classy http://www.cookingclassy.com/2014/08/creamy-chicken-noodle-soup/ Her regular recipe is super close to mine, it is a basic soup after all, but I was interested in her creamed portion of the soup in particular. I chose it and ran with it. All told, super easy, and incredible tasty.

The recipe you find below is what I made last night: my recipe, her recipe, combined to make an end product that was delightful.  Here you go:

Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Yield: 5-ish servings

Ingredients

• 2 cups dry medium shells

• 1 lb precooked shredded chicken (or 1 lb. uncooked chicken, if that’s what you have)

• 1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil

• 1 1/2 cups chopped yellow onion (1 medium)

• 1 1/3 cups chopped carrots (3 carrots)

• 1 1/3 cups chopped celery (3 stalks)

• 3 cloves garlic, minced

• 2 (32 oz) boxes chicken broth/stock (I used 1 box Rachel Ray and 1 Box Kitchen Basics, it’s what I had)

• 3 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley

• 2 bay leaves

• 2-3 branches of thyme

• Salt and black pepper, to taste

• Onion Powder

• Cayenne Pepper

• 1/4 cup butter + 2 Tbsps.

• 1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour

• 2 1/2 cups milk (I used 2%)

• 1/3 cup heavy cream

Directions

• Prepare noodles according to directions listed on package (note that you want the noodles to finish about the same time the soup is nearly finished cooking) and drain. If they finish early though, don't be shy, toss them into the drink with everything else.

• In a large pot, heat 1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil over medium heat. Add onion, carrot and celery and sauté until tender, about 3 - 4 minutes, then add garlic and sauté 1 minute longer.

• Add chicken broth, parsley, bay leaves, thyme and season with salt and pepper to taste. I promise you the bay leaves and thyme do make a tasty difference.

• Add chicken (shredded or fresh), ½ Tbsp Onion Powder, 1 light shake of Cayenne Pepper (it does not make the soup over spicy, or spicy at all, it just adds some flavor-by light shake I mean a dash) and bring soup to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, add 2 tbsp of butter, cover with lid and allow soup to simmer.

• If your chicken is raw and not precooked, shredded chicken, then cook on medium until chicken has cooked through, about 10 - 15 minutes longer (cook time will vary depending on thickness of chicken breasts). Remove chicken and allow to rest for 5 minutes, then shred into small bite size pieces. If you have a Kitchenaid or other similar tool, put it in the bowl, using the cookie paddle, shred the chicken. It takes about 7 seconds. Once this is done add the chicken back into your soup and turn it down to low.

Making the Roux & Finishing the Soup

• Melt remaining butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat, add flour and cook, stirring constantly, 1 1/2 minutes. While whisking, slowly add in milk then whisk vigorously to smooth lumps (it will take a lot of whisking to smooth since this is a lighter roux - lesser ratio of butter to flour). Whisk in cream, add ½ Tbsp of Onion Powder, Salt and Black Pepper to taste, and bring mixture to a boil, stirring constantly.

• Remove the bay leaves and the thyme sprigs. Pour seasoned cream mixture into the soup with cooked noodles and stir. Serve it hot or warm if that's how you roll. If desired, serve with shredded cheese, fresh parsley, crusty French bread and butter, and a salad. Perfection.