Homemade Chicken Soup

A few days ago I made Roasted Chicken with Herbs. I have roasted a whole chicken a few other times before, but I have always just thrown away the chicken carcass. This time, however, I decided to use the carcass to make homemade chicken soup. I'm so happy I did! It was terrific!

It was very easy to fix, but does take some time. It might be better to fix this on the weekend or a day when you'll be home. I work from home, so I was able to get everything going on my lunch break and could check on it a few times throughout the afternoon as it simmered. You need to let the soup simmer for at least four hours. Our house smelled SO good all afternoon! It was such a tease! And the soup tasted just as good as it smelled. I was a little surprised at how much meat came off of the bones! There was a lot of meat in the soup! The spices I picked out were perfect too.

I'm very happy with how it all turned out! I'm usually not much of a soup person, but this was very good! I also love the fact that we've gotten so many meals out of that one chicken! I mentioned in the post a few days ago that we got a 5.43 pound chicken for only $5.38. With that $5.38, we have already had two dinners with the chicken (and still have some leftovers) and then tonight we had a third dinner with the soup and still have a lot of soup leftover! It is such a great deal to buy a whole chicken. You can't beat it! You can get so many meals out of it for so little money!

In the list of ingredients, I just listed what vegetables and spices I used without any measurements. I didn't measure anything, I just added until I thought it looked good! I added some spices at the beginning, and then  as the soup simmered I would sample a little taste and try adding some of one or more of the spices and continued on like that. How are you going to know if your dish is good or needs anything if you don't do taste tests!

You can definitely use your imagination with this one. Add whatever vegetables or spices or whatever you want! Let me know how you decide to make it and how it turned out for you! Enjoy!

Homemade Chicken Soup

chicken carcass from Roasted Chicken and Herbs
celery
carrots
onion
bay leaf
basil
rosemary
thyme
salt
pepper
noodles

1. Add the carcass to a large pot and fill it with water until the carcass is covered. Add remaining ingredients to pot and let simmer for about 4 hours.
2. Periodically check on the soup. Add more spices as desired. As the water reduces, you may need to add more water to the pot to keep the carcass covered.
3. After about 4 hours you will notice the meat has started falling off the bones and the carcass has started to break apart. Remove bones. Some pieces will be large and easy to pick out, but you will also need to carefully look for pieces of chicken that still have smaller bones attached. I used a slotted spoon and spent about 30 minutes getting spoonfuls of chicken and picking little bones out of the meat.
4. Cook noodles, drain, and add to soup. Enjoy!