Austin's Chicken Noodle Soup

It takes a half-day of crock-pot and then normal dinner prep time. And it's soooo good. :)

Preheat: --
Category: Chicken

Crock Pot Chicken:
1 whole Fryer chicken
Water
Salt and Pepper

1. Put chicken into crock pot and add water until it's up about two inches. Season with pepper and liberal salt.

2. Turn crockpot onto Low and let the chicken cook until thermometer reads at least 165* when inserted. If the chicken was frozen when you put it into the crock pot, it'll take about five hours; if the chicken was thawed, it'll be more like three. I start my chicken first thing in the morning. I'm not kidding about liberal salt... it acts as a tenderizer for the chicken. Finally, the thermometer reading is right if you're reading from deep within the thigh. If you don't have a thermometer you can be sure the chicken is done if you pull gently on a wing or a thigh and the bone slides out. ;)

3. Carefully remove cooked meat. Save the liquid! I try to take the chicken out of the crock pot and let it cool for a little bit before attempting to remove the meat.

Soup:
3 cups Spiral noodles, uncooked
Chicken, cut into bite-size pieces
Liquid from crock pot, strained
3 Tablepoons Chicken stock
5 Potatoes, unpeeled and washed, cubed
3 Carrots, unpeeled and washed, sliced
3 stalks of Celery, washed and diced
1/4 cup Flour
3 Tablespoons Onion powder
3 Tablespoons Garlic powder
2 Tablespoons Oregano
1/4 cup Chicken stock
1/4 cup Butter
Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Cook noodles according to package directions. Strain and set aside. I like to make extra noodles when having pasta, then I refrigerate until I need them so I can skip this step! :)

2. Strain the liquid (again) into the stock pot. Add chicken stock, potatoes, carrots, celery and salt & pepper. Stir until the chicken stock is dissolved.

3. Bring to a boil, then turn down to simmer. Add Oregano.

4. In a small dish, stir together the flour, onion powder and garlic powder

5. Pull out about 2 cups of broth from the stock pot. Gradually add the flour mixture, whisking rapidly. We don't want lumps here! :)

6. Pour the flour into the stock pot and stir in. Bring to a rolling boil so soup will thicken. Boil two minutes and then lower to a simmer. Stir in chicken stock and butter while waiting for the soup to boil.

7. Soup is ready when the potatoes are finished--easily pierceable by a fork. Add cooked pasta and chicken at this stage and serve while hot. I like the soup best after it's had an overnight in the fridge and is reheated. Mmmm. :)