How To Make Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Everyone should learn how to make homemade chicken noodle soup.  It's one of the easiest dishes there is that can be made completely from scratch, and is also relatively inexpensive and filling. While it's a simple dish to cook, it can be very impressive served to a date with crusty bread, some cheese and a bottle of wine.

Ingredients:

• One whole chicken
• One large yellow onion
• Two cloves of garlic
• One whole carrot and two sliced carrots
• One celery stick
• Four quarts of water
• Two potatoes, cut into cubes
• 1/2 cup of peas
• 8 oz spaghetti noodles, uncooked
• salt, pepper to taste
• chopped chives (optional)
• lemon or lime juice (optional)

1. Start with a four to five quart stock pot. Place a cleaned whole chicken, one whole onion (skin removed), two cloves of garlic, one whole carrot and a celery stick with leaves in the pot.  Add two teaspoons of salt, one bay leaf, and 4 quarts of water. Cover tightly. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to simmer for about one hour until the chicken is cooked through. This is how you make the chicken stock, the first step in homemade chicken soup.
2. Remove the chicken from the pot.  When it's cool enough to touch, remove all the meat from the bones and set it aside.  The bones can be discarded.
3. Strain the stock through a colander to remove the remains of the vegetables and any odd bits of chicken that might have been left behind.
4. Return the chicken stock to the pot, and add the following: 2 sliced carrots, 2 cubed potatoes and 1/2 cup of peas. Bring to a boil and let the vegetables cook for 30 minutes.
5. Take 8 ounces of spaghetti noodles, and break them in half then add them to the soup.  Add the chicken meat from before. Cook the chicken soup for ten to twelve minutes more, until the spaghetti is cooked through.  Add salt and pepper to taste.
6. Garnish each bowl of homemade chicken soup with a teaspoon of chopped chives. Optionally, add a squeeze of lemon or lime juice.

Tips:

• This soup should be very flavorful, but if you'd like more chicken flavor you can add a bouillon cube to the stock.
• Feel free to experiment and add other vegetables that you like, such as lima beans or corn.
• If too much of the liquid evaporates while cooking, don't be afraid to add some more water.
• Add a can of stewed tomatoes and a teaspoon of Italian seasonings for a delicious variation on basic homemade chicken soup.