Chicken Noodle Soup

One of my dad's favorite pastimes is to try making dinner without going grocery shopping. He likes the challenge of using what is already in the kitchen to make a meal. I don't have quite the knack for it that he does, but he has several years' worth of experience on me, so I don't mind.

However... I have to admit that I did a pretty amazing job yesterday.

I was cleaning out one of the cabinets (as part of the kitchenventory) and found an old can of chicken noodle soup... old enough that I didn't want to eat it. But it sounded good. So I thought, "Oh, I'll go to Panera on my way to work and get some soup for lunch." But then I thought, "There's chicken in the fridge, and I just pulled half a bag of egg noodles out of this cabinet." Lo and behold, I had the stuff to make an actual chicken noodle soup in the Crockpot.

This is a recipe where I'm listing what I had and used, but it's very versatile, so make substitutes all over the place.

Chicken Noodle Soup (Slow Cooker)

Ingredients

two boneless, skinless chicken breasts

about 3 cups of chicken broth

about 3 cups of water

half a packet of onion soup mix

half a bag of baby carrots

half a bag of frozen peas

half a bag of frozen green beans

salt, pepper, shallot-pepper seasoning

half a bag of egg noodles

Equipment

slow cooker

Instructions

Place the chicken in the bottom of the slow cooker. Cover with the veggies and liquids. Cook on low for 6-7 hours (mine went about 8 because of work schedule). Take out the chicken and shred it with a fork (this should be really easy, it'll just fall apart) and put it back in. Add the noodles and let it cook for another 20-30 minutes. Add more liquid if you feel like it needs it.

Yields
5-6 servings... I'm working my way through the leftovers now.

Total time
7-8 hours (prep time about 5 minutes)

Cleanup rating 4/5
If you don't use a slow cooker liner, slow cookers can be a pain to clean. But at least it's only one dish. Still, this has lots of little bits of things and if you don't lick the pot clean, you have to clean little bits of things off of it.

Difficulty rating 2/10
Make sure you remember to pull out the chicken and shred it and put in the noodles on time, but otherwise, this is super easy.

Flavor rating 8/10
It might be because this was exactly what I wanted or because I skipped lunch, but this was DELICIOUS.

Adjustability: high
Since this was an on-the-fly recipe, that kind of defines it as an adjustable recipe. Use whatever vegetables and seasonings you have on hand. Have more chicken broth? Use it; I had about three cups, so that's what I used. Have vegetable broth instead? Go for it.

Make it with...
Nothing or anything. This was a hearty meal on its own and didn't need anything to go with it.