Grandma Louise’s Chicken Soup Recipe

Soup season is officially here. I have been super headachey this week and needed some kind of comfort food with extra hydration. So I made my Grandma Louise’s chicken noodle soup last night. If you need the perfect chicken soup recipe, this is it.

Start with 1 Whole chicken
Cut it up and boil it in filtered water with the lid on until the meat falls off the bones (about 2 hours). Then strain the chicken broth out, remove all the solid stuff, and let that cool on the counter.

Put the chicken broth back in the pot to boil. Chop up some carrots, celery, TONS of garlic bulbs (as many/much as you want, there’s no such thing as too much garlic, there is only “I’m tired of chopping this garlic”). Add vegetable broth to the chicken broth, since it probably lost some volume after boiling for a couple hours. Add lots of black pepper and a little bit of pink himalayan or other salt of your choice. Add any herbs you want to, except for fresh parsley. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer.

I also like to add fresh or dried, sage, rosemary, and thyme. Once in a while I might chop up a bell pepper. I think Grandma would have approved.

While the veggies are cooking in the broth, pick out all the bones and skin and weird bits from the chicken and throw them away, and shred what’s left. Add it back into the pot. If your parsley is fresh, this is the right time to put it in.

Grandma always added Kluski noodles to the pot right at the end, but sometimes I use no yolks wide dumpling egg noodles. My Polish ancestors are all shaking their heads at me.

Cover for 10-15 minutes until the noodles are done. And then start the cooling process. The bigger the pot is, the longer it will take to cool. I like to make a giant pot of soup, freeze the majority of it in smaller containers, and just leave enough for the next day in the fridge.

I was up til 2am last night making, cooling, and freezing soup. Woke up and had some for breakfast. It’s SO delicious. Gene loves it too. He said he didn’t need to add salt because there were so many tasty herbs in it. If you know Gene, you know that’s a big deal.