Classic Chicken Noodle Soup

Martin Luther King Day on Monday. The daycare was closed. I slept until eight, which for me is decadent — my body wakes at five-thirty whether I want it to or not, trained by toddlers and before that by foster homes where you got up when you were told or you didn't eat. But I lay in bed and stared at the ceiling and let myself be still, which is a skill I'm teaching myself the way you teach yourself a language: awkwardly, with long pauses, getting the grammar wrong.

I drove to Gloria's for Sunday dinner and she had the flu. Not bad — low fever, cough, the general misery of a sixty-two-year-old woman who refuses to admit she's sick. James met me at the door and said, "She's been sneezing since Thursday and telling me she's fine since Thursday and she is not fine." Gloria called from the couch, "I can hear you, James." He winked at me. I went in and took over.

I made chicken soup. Not from a recipe — from memory, from instinct, from the accumulated knowledge of a girl who has been watching a woman cook for four years. Whole chicken in the big pot, covered with water, onion, celery, carrots, salt, pepper, a bay leaf from the jar Gloria keeps above the stove. Let it simmer two hours. Pull the chicken out, shred it, put it back. Add egg noodles in the last ten minutes. That's it. That's the whole recipe. Gloria doesn't have it written on a card because some things you just know, the way you know to breathe.

I brought Gloria a bowl on the couch. She tasted it and said, "Needs salt." I went back and added salt. She tasted it again and said, "Better." James ate two bowls at the kitchen table and said, "Savannah, you're going to make somebody very happy one day." I said, "I'm making you happy right now, James." He laughed. I cleaned the kitchen while they both dozed off in the living room — Gloria on the couch, James in his chair, the TV playing something neither of them was watching. I stood in the doorway and looked at them and felt something I don't have a word for yet. It's bigger than gratitude. Quieter than love. It's the feeling of being needed by people who don't need you to survive but want you there anyway. I locked the door behind me and drove home in the dark.

Gloria’s soup didn’t come from a recipe card, and honestly, neither does mine anymore — but I wrote it down here so you have a place to start, a thing to hold onto until it becomes memory. If you’re making this for someone on a couch who insists they’re fine, add a little extra salt at the end. They’ll tell you it needs it. Add it anyway.

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 2 hours 15 minutes | Total Time: 2 hours 30 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

1 whole chicken (3 to 4 lbs), giblets removed
12 cups cold water
1 large yellow onion, quartered
3 stalks celery, cut into large pieces, plus 2 stalks thinly sliced for serving
3 large carrots, cut into large pieces, plus 2 carrots sliced into coins for serving
1 bay leaf
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more to taste
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
6 oz wide egg noodles
Fresh parsley, chopped, for garnish (optional)

Instructions

Build the broth. Place the whole chicken in a large stockpot and cover with the cold water. Add the quartered onion, large-cut celery, large-cut carrots, bay leaf, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce to a low, steady simmer.
Simmer low and slow. Let the chicken simmer uncovered for 1 hour 45 minutes to 2 hours, skimming any foam from the surface in the first 20 minutes. The broth will turn golden and the chicken will be very tender.
Pull the chicken. Carefully remove the whole chicken from the pot and set it on a cutting board to cool for 10 minutes. Remove and discard the bay leaf, quartered onion, and large celery and carrot pieces.
Add the vegetables. Bring the broth back to a simmer and add the sliced celery and carrot coins. Cook for 8 to 10 minutes until just tender.
Shred the chicken. While the vegetables cook, remove the chicken skin and pull the meat from the bones, shredding it into bite-sized pieces. Discard the skin and bones. Return the shredded chicken to the pot.
Cook the noodles. Add the egg noodles to the pot and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, or until tender. Taste the broth and add salt as needed — be generous here.
Serve. Ladle into bowls and top with fresh parsley if you like. Bring a bowl to whoever needs it most.

Nutrition (per serving)

Classic Chicken Noodle Soup — The Recipe You Already Know By Heart