Chicken Noodle Soup

I LOVE picking up rotisserie chicken from Costo. For $4.99, you get 3 1/2 pounds of tender and flavorful chicken. My boyfriend and I will have it for dinner when we buy it, and for the next day or two he'll make sandwiches until he is sick of it, then we throw it out. We have yet to eat the entire thing, since they are so big.

This time I promised myself that I would make chicken noodle soup from scratch. I've said it before, but today I meant it. I had nothing else going on and as it turns out, my boyfriend woke up feeling under the weather.

I went to the grocery store right after Costco, so I didn't have a chance to scope out a recipe, but I knew onion, celery and carrots were needed. I also picked up a box of Chicken Stock. Little did I know, I'd be making my own stock...and it was easy!

Recipe:
Stock:
1 (2 1/2 to 3-pound) fryer chicken, cut up
3 1/2 quarts water - I bought 1 quart of Chicken stock so I substituted that for extra flavor, and added 2 more quarts of water
1 onion, peeled and diced
1 1/2 to 2 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp lemon-pepper seasoning
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 bay leaves
3 chicken bullion cubes *Since I add stock, I skipped this ingredient.
Salt and black pepper

Soup:
2 cups sliced carrots
2 cups sliced celery, with leafy green tops
2 1/2 cups uncooked egg noodles
1 cup sliced mushrooms (I left this out, as I did not have any on hand)
3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley leaves
Seasoning salt
black pepper

Directions:

For the stock: Add all ingredients to a soup pot. Cook until chicken is tender, about 30 to 35 minutes. Remove chicken from pot and set aside to cool. Remove and discard bay leaves and onion (I left the onion in mine.) You should have approximately 3 quarts of stock. When chicken is cool enough to touch, pick bones clean, discarding bones, skin and cartilage. Set chicken aside.

For the soup: bring stock back to a boil, add carrots, and cook for 3 minutes. Add celery and continue to cook for 5 to 10 minutes. Add egg noodles and cook according to directions on package. When noodles are done, add chicken, and parsley. Cook for another 2 minutes. Adjust seasoning, if needed, by adding seasoning salt and pepper.

Recipe adapted from Foodnetwork.com