Extremely Fast Chicken Soup - Easy

This soup is for those times when the cook (and by cook I mean me) is sick with a cold.  And said cook has to either drag herself off her deathbed to make dinner and doesn’t have the energy for concocting anything more than soup, or spouse and/or kids are attempting dinner and you aren’t in the mood to have them sticking their heads into the bedroom every 5 minutes in a panic, crying “I can’t tell if this is a medium or large carrot” or “we don’t have the egg noodles we usually use, can taco shells sub?”

Okay, I was exaggerating a bit.  I really do have a cold.  I'm not, however, on my deathbed.  But if I were (or you are), this soup can be easily made by panicked family members.

The quantities of the veggies and herbs aren’t critical – this ain’t a cake we’re making here ... everyone take a breath! This soup will be quite excellent, because someone else made it for a change with love.

Tomorrow when you are feeling better, you can load up the dishwasher with the dishes left in the sink and sweep up all the carrot peelings.   

Extremely Fast Chicken Soup - Easy
Makes 4 main-dish servings

3 cans (14 oz. each) chicken broth
1 onion
1 carrot, rinsed
1 celery stalk, rinsed
1 tsp. dried dill
1 tsp. dried parsley
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper 
1 bay leaf
1/2 bag or box  (about 2 cups) dried egg noodles, or small pasta of your choice
2 cups shredded or diced leftover cooked chicken
Salt, if needed

Peel the carrot. Cut up all the veggies to a size that pleases whoever is cutting them up.  I like small pieces, but I've at times hacked the veggies into two inch lengths of carrots and celery and only quartered the onion and no one keeled over.

Add veggies to a 3- or 4-quart saucepan, along with broth, dill, parsley, black pepper and bay leaf.  Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes.

Stir in uncooked noodles. Return soup to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for the time stated on the noodle's package directions, or until noodles are tender but still firm.  Depending upon size/type of noodles, cooking time can be anywhere from 5-8 minutes.

My medium egg noodles took 8 minutes to look this good.  Your mileage may vary.

Discard bay leaf. Stir in chicken; return soup to just barely a simmer. 

If low-sodium broth is used, taste and add some salt if needed, 1/2 teaspoon at a time. Repeat this last step until soup is “perfect.”

Carefully ladle soup into bowls.  Serve hot.