Monday, November 10, 2008

Easy Crock Pot Chicken Noodle Soup with Vegetables

The wintry weather has arrived in Chicago. Our outside thermometer showed 28 degrees at 7:30am. Time to haul out the crock pot and start heating up the kitchen with the sweet smells of dinner.

My first dinner of the cold weather season: Chicken Noodle Soup. This was so easy and so quick to do. I had just about everything in the house. I got the idea from Fix-It & Forget-It Lightly: Healthy Low-Fat Recipes for Your Slow Cooker by Phyllis Pellman Good. This is a good standard cookbook to get if you have a crock pot.

This recipe is pretty low in fat if you use skinless chicken breasts. Adjust the salt to your liking. I used 1 tablespoon and thought it was plenty. My kids don't like black pepper, so I didn't include it. However, you know your family's tastes best. Also, you can either add uncooked noodles 1 hr before you serve the soup or you can cook the noodles separately and add them to the soup just before you serve it. I use whole wheat noodles to make it an even healthier dinner. Everyone thought it was delicious.

Chicken Noodle Soup with Vegetables
Adapted from Fix-It and Forget-It Lightly

2 onions, chopped
2 cups carrots, sliced
2 cups celery, sliced
1 tbsp salt
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
6 cups water
2 lbs bone-in chicken breasts with as much skin removed as possible
cooked noodles of whatever shape you prefer

1. Put everything the crock pot except the noodles.
2. Cover and cook on high 4-6 hours.
3. 30 min before serving, remove chicken. Cut meat from bones then cut the meat into bite size pieces. Toss the bones and add chicken back to soup.
4. Cover and continue cooking until you're ready to eat.
5. Add the cooked noodles to the pot just before serving.