Quick and Delicious Chicken Noodle Soup -- The Soup That Says Mama’s Here

The week between Christmas and New Year's is a no-man's-land. Nobody knows what day it is. Nobody wears real pants. The fridge is a museum of leftovers and the calendar is a suggestion. I worked three shifts at Waffle House (holiday crowds are reliable tippers) and spent the rest of the time in sweatpants on the couch with Chloe and Jayden watching a rotation of Frozen, Moana, and whatever Jayden pointed at on the screen while yelling "DIS! DIS!"

Chloe got a stomach bug on Wednesday. The Christmas aftermath — too much sugar, too much excitement, a four-year-old immune system that finally said "enough." She threw up twice, ran a low fever, and spent two days on the couch wrapped in a blanket looking pathetic and asking for popsicles. I held her hair back and rubbed her back and made her sip Pedialyte and thought: this is motherhood. Not the Christmas morning screaming or the school program or the Instagram moments. This. The 3 AM vomit. The back rubbing. The quiet, unglamorous, nobody-sees-this love that holds a child's hair and says, "You're okay, baby. Mama's here."

Jayden, meanwhile, was fully healthy and fully uninterested in his sister's suffering. He spent the week throwing his basketball at everything — the hoop (occasionally), the wall (frequently), the cat from next door who wandered into our patio (once, and the cat has not returned). His aim is improving. His judgment is not.

I made chicken noodle soup. Not the Campbell's kind — the real kind. A whole chicken simmered for hours, the meat pulled off, the broth strained, egg noodles added, carrots and celery diced fine so Chloe couldn't pick them out (she tried; she failed; the dice was too small). This is the soup I make when someone is sick, the soup every mother makes when the world is wrong and the only fix is broth and steam and the specific magic of a pot that's been on the stove long enough to heal things. Earline's recipe card: "Sick soup. Boil a chicken. You know the rest." I'm starting to think Earline's recipe cards were less recipes and more faith statements.

Chloe sipped the soup and said, "Mama, this makes my tummy feel warm." That's the whole review. That's all I need. A warm tummy. A healing kid. A pot of soup that says: I can't fix everything, but I can feed you. And feeding you is enough.

New Year's Eve is tomorrow. I won't stay up — I haven't stayed up until midnight since before Chloe was born. But I'll think about the year. 2016. The year I applied to school, got in, started, survived the first semester with a 3.8. The year Jayden started walking. The year Chloe sang on stage. The year Amber got engaged. The year Mama said, "That's Earline's." It was a good year. Not easy — nothing is easy, not for a Mitchell — but good. And 2017 is coming, and I'm ready for it. One more year. One more year and I'm done with school and done with Waffle House and done with waiting for my life to start. It already started. It started in a parking lot with a $50 tip and a stranger's faith. It started with two years. And I'm almost through the first one.

When Chloe snuggled up and told me the soup made her tummy feel warm, I knew this was the recipe I’d be coming back to for years—the kind that doesn’t just feed a sick kid, it steadies a tired mama too. There’s something about building a broth from scratch, watching a whole chicken give everything it’s got to a pot of cold water, that felt exactly right at the end of a year where I gave everything I had and somehow came out ahead. Here’s how I made it.

Quick and Delicious Chicken Noodle Soup

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 1 hour 30 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour 50 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken (3 1/2 to 4 lbs), giblets removed
• 12 cups cold water
• 3 medium carrots, peeled and finely diced
• 3 stalks celery, finely diced
• 1 medium yellow onion, quartered (for broth) plus 1/2 cup finely diced (for soup)
• 4 cloves garlic, smashed
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
• 2 cups wide egg noodles, uncooked
• Fresh parsley, chopped, for serving (optional)

Instructions

1. Build the broth. Place the whole chicken in a large stockpot and cover with 12 cups cold water. Add the quartered onion, smashed garlic, bay leaves, peppercorns, and 1 teaspoon kosher salt. Bring to a boil over high heat, skimming any foam that rises to the surface.
2. Simmer low and slow. Reduce heat to low, partially cover, and simmer for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes, until the chicken is fully cooked and beginning to fall off the bone. The broth should be golden and fragrant.
3. Remove and cool the chicken. Carefully lift the chicken out of the pot and set it on a cutting board to cool for 10 to 15 minutes. Strain the broth through a fine mesh sieve into a large bowl or second pot, discarding the solids. Return the strained broth to the pot.
4. Pull the meat. Once cool enough to handle, pull all the chicken meat from the bones, discarding the skin and bones. Shred or chop the meat into bite-sized pieces. Set aside.
5. Cook the vegetables. Bring the strained broth back to a gentle boil over medium heat. Add the finely diced carrots, celery, and diced onion. Cook for 10 to 12 minutes, until the vegetables are tender.
6. Add noodles and chicken. Stir in the egg noodles, pulled chicken, remaining 1 teaspoon salt, thyme, and dried parsley. Cook for 8 to 10 minutes, until the noodles are just tender. Taste and adjust salt as needed.
7. Serve warm. Ladle into bowls and top with fresh parsley if desired. Serve with saltine crackers or soft bread for the little ones. Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days; the noodles will absorb broth as it sits, so add a splash of water or broth when reheating.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 310 | Protein: 31g | Fat: 10g | Carbs: 22g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 620mg