Slow Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup

I've been trying a lot of Crock Pot stuff lately can you tell?

Slow Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 7 hours

Yield: 4 - 5 servings

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 5 medium carrots, peeled and chopped (1 3/4 cups)
• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped (1 1/2 cups)
• 4 stalks celery, chopped (1 1/4 cups)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 6 cups low-sodium chicken broth (3 - 15 oz cans)
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1/2 tsp dried rosemary, crushed
• 1/4 tsp celery seed, finely crushed*
• 2 bay leaves
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 2 cups uncooked wide egg noodles
• 3 1/2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
• 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
• Saltine crackers or parmesan cheese, for serving (optional) 

Directions

• To a slow cooker, add chicken (un-cut), diced carrots, onion, celery, and garlic. Drizzle olive oil over top then add in chicken broth, water, thyme, rosemary, celery seed, bay leaves and season with salt and pepper to taste. Cover and cook on low heat 6 - 7 hours.
• Remove cooked chicken and allow to rest 10 minutes, then dice into bite size pieces. Meanwhile, add egg noodles and parsley to slow cooker. Increase temperature to high, cover and cook 10 minutes longer (or until noodles are tender). Stir in lemon juice and toss in cooked, diced chicken. Serve warm with saltine crackers or top with Parmesan cheese if desired.
• *I just crushed the rosemary in the palm of my hand then for the celery seed, I placed it in a ziploc bag and crushed it with the flat side of a meat mallet.
• Recipe Source: Cooking Classy

Cream Cheese Chicken and Vegetable Soup

from melskitchencafe.com
*Note: this recipe calls for already cooked chicken. I usually cook the chicken breasts in the crockpot with a little chicken broth the morning I make this soup, but you could also go ahead and cook the chicken in the first step with the onions and other vegetables that cook together.
*Serves 4

2 tablespoons butter
1 yellow onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 stalks celery, diced
1/2 cup diced carrots (about 2 regular carrots or a handful of baby carrots)
3 cups chicken broth
2-3 potatoes, peeled and finely diced (I like to leave the peels on red potatoes, if using them)
1 cup milk
4 tablespoons flour
1 (8 oz. package) regular or light cream cheese
2-3 (about 1 pound) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked and diced

In a large pot, melt the butter and add the onion, garlic, celery and carrots. Saute, stirring often, for 3-4 minutes, until the veggies are slightly tender and the onions are translucent. Add the chicken broth and potatoes. Bring the soup to a simmer and cook, partially covered, until the potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes. In a liquid measuring cup, vigorously whisk the flour and milk together until smooth. Whisk the mixture into the soup, stirring quickly, and cook over medium heat for 3-4 minutes, until the soup begins to thicken slightly. Stir often to ensure the soup doesn't burn. Soften the cream cheese in the microwave until it is very soft/melty. I usually place the unwrapped cream cheese on a plate and microwave it for one minute at 30% power. I like it really, really soft so it doesn't leave lumps in the soup. Add the cream cheese to the soup in small tablespoon-size pieces. Let the pieces sit in the soup and warm through then whisk or stir the soup until the cream cheese melts and mixes in well. Add the cooked chicken and heat through. Season with salt and pepper. Serve.

homemade chicken broth

I made homemade chicken chicken broth!

Steve and I had a rotisserie chicken one night for dinner.  After dinner, we stuck it in the fridge.
Next afternoon I pulled it out, plopped it into a pot, threw:
a couple carrots
a couple leafy ribs of celery
1/4 of a large onion
2 smashed cloves of garlic

Then, measured by small palmfuls (equivalent to a tablespoon or so) I added:
thyme
parsley
rosemary
bay leaf

Filled the pot with water, and brought it to a boil.  After it boiled, turned it down to simmer and covered.
Let that pot simmer for about an hour.  I left mine for longer.
Strain all the solids out of the broth, and ta da!

You can package it up and freeze it, or use it right away, which is what I did.
I made a yummy chicken noodle soup to take care of us sickies at the house.

Though this isnt their exact recipe, I got this idea from ourbestbites.com

White Chicken Chili

Fast, flavorful and filled with fiber! Traditional chili takes a twist with ground chicken, white beans and green chilies. From eatbetteramerica.
Prep Time:35 min
Start to Finish:35 min
makes:6 servings (1 1/3 cups each)

1 lb chicken, ground or chopped
1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
2 teaspoons finely chopped garlic
3 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth (from 32-oz carton)
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano leaves
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper (cayenne)
2 medium zucchini, chopped (about 3 cups)
2 cans (15 oz each) cannellini beans or 2 cans (15 to 16 oz each) great northern beans, drained, rinsed
1 can (4.5 oz) chopped green chiles
1/2 cup shredded reduced-fat Monterey Jack cheese

1. In 4- or 5-quart saucepan or Dutch oven, cook ground chicken, onion and garlic over medium heat 5 to 7 minutes, stirring constantly, until chicken is no longer pink.
2. Stir in all remaining ingredients, except cheese. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat; cover and simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until zucchini is tender.
3. Remove from heat; stir in cheese until melted.
High Altitude (3500-6500 ft): In step 1, cook chicken 6 to 8 minutes. In step 2, cover and simmer 12 minutes.

Most people added some sour cream and carrots.

Queso Soup

2 1/2 cups cooked shredded chicken
1 can or 1 1/2 cups frozen corn
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 - 4 oz. can diced green chilies
2 tbsp. snipped cilantro
1 pkg. taco seasoning
1 can of beans (whatever is your favorite)
Mix together in crockpot

Add 3-4 cups chicken broth

Cook on low for 6 hours or high 3-4 hours
Or if you are in a hurry you can cook on the stove and let simmer for a couple hours.

In last 30 minutes add:
6 - 8 oz. velveeta cheese (you can use the cheaper brand)
3/4 cup sour cream

Do not boil after adding sour cream!
Serve with tortilla chips.

Chicken Noodle Soup

2 chicken breasts
some carrots cut into circles
half an onion (or more if you like it lots)
2 stalks of celery and the center of the stalk with the leaves on it
6 or 8 cups of water
2+ TBSP of chicken bouillon
Fresh ground pepper to taste
Thyme (preferably fresh)
5 or 6 new potatoes cut small
Homemade noodles

I saute'd the onion in a little olive oil first. In large pot mix onion, chicken, carrots, celery, water, bouillon, and thyme together. When chicken is done, cut into small pieces and add back into the soup. The last 15 minutes add the potatoes and then in the last 10 minutes add the noodles. Makes a great chicken noodle soup. If you need to add more water during the simmering time, go ahead. Fish out the thyme stems - they aren't very eatable.

Chicken Soup

I'm not a huge fan of boring chicken noodle soup but I thought I'd give it a go anyways. This is what I did and it was pretty good I must admit.

In a med large pot dump in some milk and some water about equal amounts.

If you want lots of soup add more of everything. If less. Opposite that.

Slice lots of carrots celery and a bunch of green onions

Get all that stuff on a low boil

Add a fat clove of minced garlic

A chunk of butter. Mmmmm. Or margarine. What ever was in the wrapper.

Then I just started grabbing the seasonings like an idiot.

A shake of garlic powder

A shake of basil

Couple shakes of minced dry onion. We like onion.

A shake of oregano but Mom said that was a bad idea

Lots of Salt and Pepper but mine came out a little too peppery

Pack of chicken broth seasoning. Or bull-ee-on.

Cook it all down. Long style.

Chunk up some defrosted uncooked chicken and toss that all in. 

Then I made some homemade noodles. They were fun. 

One egg

Cup flour

And I doused it with water a couple times cause mine was too crumbly

Work it till it barely starts to stick together and get your hands in there and make a ball

Roll the stuff out on a dry surface

Make it thin till it almost tears apart

Let it dry a minute and slice it up to small noodle width. They'll expand in the water. Thin is good.

Then Mom said that they need to be dry so they don't break up in the water so I took a magazine and started fanning them. I considered a blow dryer. 

With the soup on a low roll I started dropping noodles in. 

Let the noodles cook at least 15 min. It doesn't seem that long I promise.

And thats it. Best chicken noodle soup I've ever made. And the first.

ErockN Out!

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

8 slices bacon, chopped

3 LBS potatoes, scrubbed

1 large onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 TBS flour

4 c. chicken broth

1 c heavy cream

1 sprig thyme or 1/4 t dried thyme

4 c shredded cheese plus additional for garnish

1 c sour cream plus additional for garnish

pepper

3 scallions, sliced thin

cook bacon until crisp. While the bacon is cooking, use a vegetable peeler to remove wide strips of peel from the potatoes; reserve the peels. cut the peeled potatoes into 3/4 inch pieces. transfer the bacon to a plate lined with paper towel. Add the reserved potato skins to the bacon fat in the pot and cook until crisp. transfer the skins to the plate with the bacon. 

add the onion to the fat remaining in the pot and cook over med heat until golden brown. stir in the garlic and flour and cook until fragrant, about 1 min. Gradually whisk in the broth and cream, stir in the thyme and potatoes, bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to med-low, cover the pot, and cook until the potatoes are tender. 

transfer 2 cups of the cooked potatoes to a bowl. Puree the remaining soup in batches in a blender until smooth. Return the soup to the pot and warm over medium heat. 

Off the heat stir in the cheese until melted, then whisk in the sour cream. Return the reserved potatoes to the pot and season with pepper. Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with bacon, fried potato skins, scallions, cheese and sour cream.