Medium-Effort Chicken Noodle Soup

 What is medium-effort chicken soup? Well, it's not no-effort soup where you throw a bunch of pre-cooked ingredients into a pan and heat it all up. It's also not the "supreme" or "ultimate" chicken soup recipes you find on Cook's Illustrated, Serious Eats, or any of the other foodie websites. This soup takes a little prep work, some time, but not very much effort and makes a soup that is substantially better than what you can buy pre-made.

Note on ingredients: I like a combination of black and white peppers in this dish, but it's fine to use only one of them. Also, if you like a particular herb or spice in your own chicken soup, just add it with all the other dried herbs. I think carrots and celery are the best veggies for chicken soup, but you can also use turnips, parsnips, potatoes, or whatever you like (or have.) In other words, this chicken soup can be made any way you like it!

Ingredients

• 2-3 pounds of chicken thighs or drumsticks (any combination of dark meat), skin-on and bone-in
• 4-5 cans of low-sodium chicken broth
• 5-10 garlic cloves, peeled and slightly crushed
• 2-3 bay leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground white pepper
• 1 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 1 teaspoon dried sage
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley
• 1 tablespoon dried/dehydrated minced onion (not onion powder!)
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 3 medium or large carrots
• 3 ribs celery (save the leaves from your bunch if it has them)
• 1/4 cup of fresh parsley leaves
• 12 ounces dried egg noodles
• 1 lemon, which you will both zest and juice.

Instructions

Put the chicken and garlic in a large soup pot, cover with the broth by about an inch. Turn the heat on high and while it comes to a boil add the dried herbs, spices, and salt. Once it boils, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 60-90 minutes, until the chicken is ready to fall apart. 

Carefully remove the chicken to a cutting board, keeping as much of the broth in the pan as possible. While the chicken cools, chop the celery and carrots into bite-sized pieces and place into the soup. Turn the heat to low and cover. 

Finely chop up the parsley and celery leaves and set aside. Once the chicken is cool enough to handle, pull the skin off and discard. Then pull the meat off the bones, discarding the bones and any cartilage or gristle. Chop or pull apart any large chunks of chicken into bite-sized pieces. 

Add the chicken meat and noodles to the pot, cover, and simmer until the noodles are tender, 7-8 minutes. Remove from heat. Zest and juice the lemon and stir in the zest, juice, parsley, and celery leaves. Season with additional salt and pepper to taste and serve.