Creative Cooking Fridays Presents: Chicken Noodle Soup

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

I have been feeling horrible these last couple of days. Not only am I still trying to get over an illness that I’ve had for the last 3 months since I’ve been living in Spain, but I also woke up on Thursday morning with a throbbing headache, body aches and a horrible sore throat (my third sore throat since living here). I am still trying to get to the bottom of my sickness. I thought that seeing a doctor would help, but it hasn’t. I thought that taking antibiotics, allergy medicine, and acid-reflux medicine would help, but it hasn’t; and I even thought that increasing the amount of fruits, vegetables and orange juice that I consume on a daily basis would also help, but that hasn’t helped either.  I am now left wondering if maybe living in Spain just isn’t good for my immune system.

Because I’ve been feeling so ill, I thought that the perfect thing to prepare tonight would be a homemade chicken noodle soup. I knew that it would be good for my immune system and good for my soul.

I’ve never made homemade chicken noodle soup before but I imagined that it wouldn’t be that difficult to prepare. I browsed a couple of recipes online and they all seemed pretty simple. Although it was really hard for me to get out of the piso this morning, I took some medicine, got dressed, and headed to the supermarket to get some things that I needed for the soup.  

The ingredients for chicken noodle soup are pretty basic, for the most part; all you need is chicken broth, vegetables and chicken. The soup wasn’t totally homemade because I bought chicken broth instead of making my own. Not only did I think that I would be disgusted making my own broth, but I also didn’t have a pot big enough to fit a whole chicken.

When I returned to my piso I rested for a little while, I wanted to make sure that I had enough energy to cook later. Then, once 9:00 hit, I got up, chose one of my Sex and the City DVD’s to watch and headed to the kitchen to start preparing the soup. Unfortunately, I had hot tea instead of my usual glass of wine, so cooking wasn’t as fun as it usually is.


Vegetables



First, I started cutting up the vegetables. I wanted the soup to be full of vegetables so I bought carrots, celery, potatoes and onions.  I also cooked the noodles while I was doing this. Then, I placed the vegetables inside of a saucepan to cook for just a little while. While the veggies were cooking, they released such a wonderful aroma into the air. I then added the chicken broth as well as some other things and let it cook. Meanwhile, I cleaned the chicken and placed it into the oven to bake. When the chicken was done, I diced it and placed it in the pot with the simmering soup, along with the noodles. Afterwards, I added fresh garlic, parsley and some seasoning. And lastly, I added my favorite ingredient: lemon juice.

When the soup was finished, I put some into a bowl and I made myself a cup of hot tea with lemon, as well as a glass of orange juice. I then sat down, under the warm table in my living room, to enjoy the meal.

The soup was perfect. It was exactly what I needed, not only to sooth my throat, but also to warm me up from the cold weather. There is only one thing about the soup that I would change: I accidently bought the finely thinned filet chicken from the supermarket so I wasn’t able to dice it as well.  But even with the filet chicken, the soup was absolutely wonderful. I also made enough to have for the rest of the weekend. I will definitely be making more soup in the next couple of months: it’s the perfect way to combat the cold weather.

P.S. I’d like to wish a very Happy Birthday to my father. I love you!