Chicken soup for your belly

Soup season is upon us! Whoohoo! Yay fall! OK. Now that I've gotten that out of my system...MrsThunder asked me if I had a good chicken noodle soup recipe. Well, I don't exactly, but these 3 recipes below can be easily adapted to make them into chicken noodle.

This recipe is my go to chicken soup recipe. It's called Chicken mug pie. I never put the biscuits on top of the soup like the recipe tells you too. I prefer to dip biscuits rather than let them get super soggy in the bowl. Since I am lacking in a food scale, have no idea how much 1.5 lbs of chicken is. I usually chop up 4 well endowed chicken breasts. (For some reason the chickens at meijers are some sort of genetic freak of nature. If your chickens aren't mutants, use 5 breasts.) I omit the peas, so to make up for the loss in veggies I double the celery and carrots. I rarely use the half &half /cream. Whatever milk you've got in the fridge still results in a tasty soup. This recipe calls for shredded potatoes. If you want to have noodles, cook them first, then add them at the end. I don't think you'd want more than half a box.

I came across this recipe for cockadoodle chicken. I haven't tested it out, but it seems similar to the chicken mug pie. I don't think you'd have to use rotisserie chicken if you didn't want to. It would give you a nice mix of white and dark meat though. You might need to simmer the soup longer at the end if you are not using egg noodles. If you are worried about too much broth being soaked up in the cooking process of a thicker noodle, just boil them in a separate pot before adding, or add extra water/broth/stock at the end.

OK. So I know Italian wedding soup is NOT chicken noodle soup, but you could alter this recipe easily to make it so. In our house it is called "Cinderella's wedding soup". I thought giving it that name would be a good way to get a girl who wouldn't eat soup to at least try it. It worked brilliantly. This is Blockette's favorite soup, at least it was last winter. Who knows what the fickle girl will think this fall.

The recipe calls for little meatballs, but you could substitute chicken. You could even make the meatballs from ground chicken if you so desired. Whatever meat you chose, if you are making meatballs, use the leanest you can find. The meatballs cook in the soup so whatever fat content is in the meat stays in the soup. I think skimming off the nasty thick white layer of fat off the top of cooled soup is disgusting. I don't know why I'm so grossed out by it. Add it to the long list of Mrsblocko's weird quirks.

I've never used orzo as the pasta. I've never understood orzo. If you want the shape of rice, why not just use rice? Instead I use some similar sized pasta like acini de pepe, anellini or alphabet. I like the tiny cuts of pasta with the meatballs, but use whatever noodle floats your boat.

When prepared as directed, you get a really thick soup. I prefer a bit more liquid in my soup. Instead of 10 cups of broth, I use 6 (about 14 oz each) cans of broth, 3 cups of water and 1 cup of stock. If it wasn't so expensive, I'd use all stock. I like stock hands down over broth. It tastes richer, and has less sodium than the low sodium broth. It would probably be cheaper and even lower in sodium if I made my own stock. I guess I'm just too lazy to do spend the extra time it takes to make your own stock.

Be forewarned! This recipe makes a huge vat of soup. Use the largest pot you have or you will be sorry. I've learned this the hard way. Switching pots mid way through preparation is not fun. Pouring boiling hot liquid and a clumsy cook are not a winning combination. Personally, I love that this recipe makes so much. Most of the soup ends up in the freezer, and the soup does freeze beautifully. Sometimes I think the soup needs a bit more liquid after defrosting. That could be because I like a brothier soup.

I hope this was helpful. If you have a favorite soup, chicken noodle or other, please feel free to share in the comment section.

Rachael Ray's Chicken Mug Pie
1 tube jumbo bake-off butter biscuits,
Sweet paprika, for sprinkling
1 1/2 pounds chicken breast pieces, diced
3 tablespoons butter
2 ribs celery and greens from the heart, chopped
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and diced
Salt and pepper
2 teaspoons poultry seasoning
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup shredded potatoes, ready to cook hash browns,
1 pint half-and-half or cream
1 quart chicken stock, available in boxes on soup aisle
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg, a healthy grating
1 cup frozen green peas

Preheat oven according to package directions and arrange biscuits on cookie sheet. You will have 4 extra biscuits. Save them for ham and cheese or egg and cheese breakfast sandwiches the next morning. Sprinkle biscuits with a little paprika and bake 10-12 minu.

In med pot over med-med high heat, cook chicken in butter 2 min then add veggies and season with salt, pepper and poultry seasoning. Cook 5 min more, add flour cook another min. Add potatoes, then whisk in half-and-half and stock. Add nutmeg. Bring soup to a boil by raising heat, then turn heat back to simmer and cook soup another 10 min. Adjust seasonings. Add peas. Stir in to warm them through a minute.

Serve mugs of soup with biscuits on top to cap the mug: chicken mug pies!

Italian Wedding Soup from Cook think
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1 pound ground beef (or combination beef with pork or veal)
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1 egg
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
10 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 cups orzo
1 carrot, diced
1 pound escarole, coarsely chopped

In a large bowl, combine bread crumbs, beef, onion, egg, salt, pepper, garlic, parmesan and parsley. Gently mix til just combined -- overmixing will toughen meatballs. Bring broth to a boil in large saucepan. While broth is heating, make small meatballs with beef mixture. (Meatballs should be between 1/4- 1/2" in diameter.) Once broth is boiling, gently add meatballs, orzo and carrots. As soon as broth starts boiling again, gently stir in chopped escarole. Reduce heat to med-low and simmer til pasta al dente and escarole wilted and tender, 10 min. Add salt and pepper or more grated parmesan to taste.