Whole Chicken Soup

5 from 2 votes

Whole chicken soup is here! How to make homemade chicken noodle soup with whole chicken, fresh or frozen and other recipes with this bird.

Prep Time10

Cook Time1 30

Course: Appetizer, Entree, Soup

Cuisine: American

Keyword: boiled, chicken noodle soup, frozen chicken, homemade, whole chicken

Servings:

Author: Justine

Equipment

1 stock pot

Ingredients

3-4 lb whole chicken
3 tbsp minced garlic
1 onion quarterd
2 bay leaves
2 stalks celery cut into large chunks
2 carrots peeled, cut into large chunks
Making Soup
8-12 oz egg noodles depending on how much you want
24-48 oz chicken broth depends on taste
salt and pepper to taste
2 tsp oregano
2 tsp thyme
2 stalks celery sliced
2 carrots sliced into small dials
1 onion diced
1 tbsp olive oil

Instructions

Remove bag from cavity of whole chicken if there is one. Put into stockpot. Fill with water so that the bird is covered.
Place on the stovetop and set burner to medium high heat. Prepare onion, 2 carrots and 2 celery stalks and throw those in with bay leaves and garlic. Just add 1 pinch of salt and pepper at this time. (will add more to taste later)
Cover the pot and wait until it reaches a steady boil. Adjust heat so boiling doesn't stop but when covered it isn't bubbling over at all. Leave to boil for 1 1/2 hours for a 3 – 4 lb defrosted whole chicken. Larger than 4 pounds, add an additional 15 minutes per pound. For a frozen chicken add 15 minutes.
After the first half an hour to an hour open lid and use a large spoon to remove the yuck off the surface of your liquid, discard. Recover
When timing is up check it by using tongs and grabbing the leg bone. If it lifts right out without any effort it is done.
Turn burner off. Transfer bird, bones that have fallen off into the pot, meat in the pot, and put on to a cutting board to remove from bones.
Use a slotted spoon to remove the veggies, discard those. Put a colander above a large pot in your sink and pour broth from pot in to remove any additional skin, bones, meat from the broth.
Put pot of skimmed broth back on to the burner on medium heat. Cut or shred meat off of carcass and put 1/2 of it back into the pot (that is usually enough, save the rest for another dish tomorrow).
In a pan on your stovetop add olive oil, diced onion, dials of fresh carrots and freshly sliced celery. Cook until slightly softened. Add these veggies into the pot with chicken. Increase heat to medium high.
Adjust amount of liquid now, add as much packaged chicken broth as you want now remembering that noodles need to be covered and submerged. Wait until broth is bubbling.
Pour in uncooked noodles when liquid is at a steady rolling boil. At this time you could add 1 c. frozen peas if you want more veggies. Cook until as tender as you'd like.
If you want to make it spicy add 1.5 tsp red pepper flakes with the noodles. For a creamy soup add 1.5 cup coconut milk in with noodles.
Taste, season with salt and pepper to taste and serve!

Video

Nutrition