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As a child, my mother used to feed me a certain popular canned chicken noodle soup (in a red and white can,) when I was sick. Nothing against her for giving me ultra-high temperature pasteurized, sodium-laden, soup that could survive an apocalypse, but there is a viable home-made option that only takes about an hour and a half, including prep. If you really love someone (or yourself), you should make this soup; it is the best!

There are a few concepts that you should understand about making the best possible soup. First, do not boil the soup-ever! Boiling destroys flavor, it's much too violent. Simmer your soup...just to the point that it lightly bubbles. Second, don't cook your ingredients to high heaven.

It does not take that long to poach a chicken, cook pasta, or cook carrots. Nobody wants dry chicken and mushy pasta and carrots. This means respect the order of operations. Third, sautee aromatics. Meaning hot oil contact for onions, celery, garlic, pepper, bay leaf, and thyme. Don't just throw all the ingredients in water. You'd be short-changing yourselves. There are flavorful oils in these things that are released in oil much more efficiently than in just water.

Fourthly, you don't need premade chicken stock. The act of cooking the soup creates a perfectly flavorful broth. And lastly, keep it
hearty. Keep everything in roughly 1/2" chunks...nothing like that aforementioned canned soup.

Ingredients:
1 whole chicken, cleaned, excess fat from the cavity removed, salted and peppered (reserve neck)
1/2 to 2/3 pound pasta of choice (elbow macaroni, mini penne, something small enough to eat with a spoon
6 stalks celery, split in half lengthwise and cut in 1/2" increments
2 medium onions, large dice, about 1/2" chunks, like celery
3 medium carrots, cut in similarly large chunky wedges
2 cloves garlic minced
4 bay leafs
4 sprigs thyme whole
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 small bunch Italian parsley chopped finely
few tablespoons of olive oil...enough to cover bottom of pan twice
a few cracks of black pepper
salt to taste (few fingerfulls)
water to cover bird

Procedure:
So, first we will poach a chicken and make a flavorful broth.
Prep the ingredients as described above.
Heat a heavy bottomed pot on medium-high heat. Add enough oil to cover bottom. Add whole chicken and neck to brown skin thoroughly. Turn the chicken to brown 4 sides. Remove the chicken and neck.

Add half of the onions and half of the celery to same pot without draining fat and sautee for 2 minutes. Add garlic, thyme sprigs, bay leaves, cracked pepper, and sautee for 30 seconds or so. Deglaze the pan with the white wine and reduce liquid by half.

Add the chicken and the neck back to pan and cover with the water. Turn up the heat and bring to simmer (not boil!). Poach the chicken for 25 minutes-that's all. You should turn the chicken about half-way through the poaching. Remove chicken and set aside to cool. Strain the poaching liquid and you have a perfect broth.

Wait a couple minutes for the chicken to cool and drink some of the wine you just opened (very important step). Remove skin and dice chicken into hearty 1/2" pieces, obvioulsly being careful not to include bone or cartilage in the chunks.

Rinse pan and heat again on medium high heat. Add oil again to cover bottom. Add rest of onions and celery and sautee for 1 min. Add wonderful broth and bring to simmer. Simmer for 2 min. Season the liquid with salt to your desired taste. Add carrots and pasta at the same time.

When the pasta is a minute shy of perfectly al dente add chicken and parsley to pot and cook for 1 minute more.
Serve immediately.

Learn more about this author, Lindberg Woodhouse.
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