vicky's quick & dirty chicken noodle soup.

it's my mom's birthday today, so it was only fitting i share her recipe on what is hands down, my absolute favourite soup on the planet, her chicken noodle recipe. it's hearty, super rustic, full of flavour and tastes better and better as you eat it. until recently, i had only ever enjoyed her soup, so i never knew how she made it or what kind of work went into this tasty winter meal. thinking this was a full day process and a tradition i should keep alive to pass on, i added asking her to teach me how to make her recipe to my 30 by 30 list, and did just that a few sundays back. it was when she looked at me like i was asking her to teach me how to boil water, that i realized this was less of a task than i had pictured it being in my mind and of course, my mouth.

how we do: vicky's quick & dirty chicken noodle soup

{makes 1 enormous pot}

prep time: 25 minutes

cook time: 1.5 hours

eating time: my family? before that shit has a chance to cool.

you will need:

small macaroni or noodles of your choice

8 pieces of chicken legs & thighs

5 stalks of celery

1 small bag of peeled baby carrots

1 large can of plum tomatoes

dried oregano & parsley

salt & pepper to taste

fill your largest pot with water and get it on the stove on high to get it boiling. while that's going, you can prep the chicken, which includes washing it and trimming off any excess fat, and is not a job i would be interested  in doing -- it makes me queasy just thinking about it. i actually had to look away while my mom man handled those legs and thighs, and i spent the entire time asking her how the hell she doesn't barf when she does it. she's tough as balls. when the water was boiling, she dropped the chicken and let it do it's thang while i did the less slimy task of chopping the veggies.

wash and roughly chop 5 stalks of celery and a small bag of baby carrots, we like our soup rustic, but chop your veg however you enjoy it most. once your chicken in cooked through, you can add the celery, carrots and 1 large can of plum tomatoes with their juice. flavouring is as easy as a few 'nonna handfuls' (very small handful) of dried parsley and oregano from nonno's garden, and salt and pepper to taste. let this baby go for a good hour, pull apart any large pieces of chicken and remove any bones, boil up some small macaroni or egg noodles, and you have the best homemade quick and dirty chicken noodle soup you could ask for, worth the nasty chicken prep all damn day.