Vicky's Chicken Soup

1) First you must pick your tunes. Jamming while cooking is essential : ) I"m pretty sure it makes the food taste better.

2) Next you're gonna want to gather your ingredients:

1 32 oz container Swanson Chicken Broth
1 or 2 chicken breasts- thawed
1 bag fresh carrots
1 medium onion
Celery
2 cloves garlic
1 package portabella mushrooms
Fresh Rosemary
Fresh Thyme
1/2 c egg noodles (not pictured)
Olive oil (not pictured)

3) Chop 1 teaspoon of each rosemary and thyme. I put them in separate bowls afterward to avoid mess.

4) Trim the fat and other gross stuff off the chicken breast. Rub a bit of olive oil on the bottom of the pan before you put the chicken in the oven so it doesn’t stick after baking. Lightly salt for flavor and sprinkle w/ some rosemary and thyme. Bake @ 350 for about 35-45 min (until done and the juices run clear when you cut the thickest part w/ a knife {salmonella is bad news bears}). And while the chicken is baking…

5) Finely chop half of the onion (you want about 1/2 cup when all is said and done).

6) Behold! The greatest kitchen invention since the spork: The Garlic Press. You put the clove in the press and SQUISH! Your garlic is finely minced. But, if you don't have one, doing it the old fashioned way works too. I added it to the chopped onion and set it aside in a bowl for future reference.

7) Finely chop about a cup of celery and 1 1/2 cups of carrots. I like the baby carrots because you can chop them into nice small coins. Remember- the thicker you cut the carrots the longer they take to cook.

8) The chicken should be about done! Set it aside to cool.

9) Now its time to start the soup part. You want a 2 Qt sauce pan/pot, the onion, garlic, olive oil, rosemary and thyme.

10) Turn on your burner to about 3 (if you don’t have #’s it’s about the same place on all knobs, like medium-low-ish). Add a splash of olive oil to your pot along with the onion and garlic, a bunch of rosemary and thyme. (It should look like the picture) You are going to cook the onions until they start to get translucent (but not brown!) stirring them a bit for about 3 min once they’ve started to sizzle a little.

11) Next add your celery and carrots to the pot along with the 32 oz of chicken broth and 1 1/2 cups of water. Turn the heat up to bring it to a boil (about 9).

12) While you're waiting for the soup to boil, shred or chop the chicken breast up into cubes and add it to the pot. It should be cool enough to handle by now.

13) Once your soup is good and boiling turn the heat down to about 7 to bring it to a simmer/low boil.

14) I like dumplings in my soup. If you’re brave enough try them! They can be a little…messy... though. (If you don’t want dumplings simmer the soup for 15 min and skip to #20) You will need ½ cup flour, 6 egg yolks, a fork, and a spoon or two. Separate the egg yolks and place them in a bowl. Lightly beat them with the fork and add to the flour. Mix the two together with a fork until the fork stops working. At that point I use my fingers. The dough is sticky so it gets messy. But! Once you have the stuff mixed into a gooey paste it looks like this:

15) Now you’re gonna place spoon fulls like in the picture into the pot until there’s no more goop left in the bowl. Sometimes it doesn’t want to release from the spoon, I use that second spoon to help scrape it off.

16) Now, while all that is cooking, chop up about ½ cup of the baby Portabellas. I like Portas because they have more flavor but regular mushrooms work just the same (and might be a little cheaper). Add them to the pot!

17) You can add noodles instead of dumplings or you can add both! I added both this time. Add about ½ to 1 cup egg noodles (depending on how many noodles you want) and cook for 10 min (or according to the instructions on the package).

18) While the noodles are cooking turn the heat down to about medium. Your pot should look like this with all the dumplings floating to the top.

19) Taste the soup- if its too salty add 1/4 cup water. If its still too salty continue to add water to taste. Be careful not to add too much water or you will have to boil the water off or have watery soup.

20) When the noodles are done your soup is ready!