I'm a Sunday morning grocery shopper. I grocery shop at WalMart and I like to get there early in the morning before the crowd shows up. Why is Walmart always so dang crowded, anyway? I knew going in that I was going to make this soup today. I got everything I needed to make it, except the poultry seasoning and the corn starch...OK and the celery. I forgot that too. Luckily Kroger is on the way home so I stopped in there and grabbed the celery. Couldn't find any poultry seasoning anywhere in the store. Got distracted by bagels with ungodly amounts of fiber and fresh cut sunflowers. Forgot the cornstarch...again.
Jump to a few hours later. I decide it's time to make the soup. Crap! No Cornstarch. Call Mamaw(to tell her the folks are safe in Poland) and ask her about cornstarch and poultry seasoning. She tells me to just use a chicken bullion cube in place of the seasoning and not to use flour(my idea) instead of cornstarch unless I want globby-biscuity soup. And she tells me just to make the soup without the cornstarch, since all it does is thicken it. Do I listen? Of course not. I want to make this soup the "right" way and follow the recipe to the letter. SO I head out the door for the second time today to go to Kroger for cornstarch. I knew I had bullion cubes at home, so I grabbed the cornstarch, got distracted by 3 for 18.00 DVD deals, and came on home.
I begin happily chopping carrots and celery, cooking noodles, etc. Feeling pretty confident. As luck would have it when I' get to the "add poultry seasoing" part of the recipe I realize I DO NOT HAVE CHICKEN BULLION! ARG! So I frantically dig through my spices. "Um. This is Mrs. Dash Table Blend. That'll work. Put that in. Ummm. Smells kinda weird, but I won't taste it, that would make way too much sense...instead I'll add a little pepper. OH! I'll also add some lemon pepper too--I like that. Whoa...still smells funky. Salt. Maybe salt will help.Hmmm. Still not going to taste it, but maybe it could use some Cajun Spice. Yes, that's it." I kid you not. Didn't occur to me until after I'd added the cajun spice that I should probably taste it! Sheesh. What a moron. Eventually I stopped adding spices and just let the soup simmer.
I'll say this. Once complete, my chicken noodle soup had a very, uh, complex, not to mention PEPPERY taste. My tongue is a bit numb from all the pepper and every once in a while I noticed a weird taste which I think is either from the whole wheat pasta or one of the 10,000 different spices that I used. But it isn't bad, really, it's pretty good, all things considered. I'm hoping it's one of those things that gets better after it sits a while. I have something like 35 gallons of it still to eat as the recipe does make more than I realized it would. ;) Guess I'll be eating soup all week.The next time I make this I will have poultry seasoning on hand and instead of using whole wheat pasta, I'm going to use good ole' fattening Amish noodles. And my grandma was right. I didn't need the cornstarch. Lessons Learned.
I'm posting the recipe because I figure if I can go that astray with the seasonings and it still taste OK, it's probably great when done correctly!
Simple Chicken Noodle Soup
1-1/4 cups wide egg noodles
1/2 teaspoon vegetable oil
6 cups chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped carrots
2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons water
1-1/2 cups diced, cooked chicken meat
Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add egg noodles and
oil, and boil for 8 minutes, or until tender. Drain, and rinse under cool
running water.
In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, combine broth, and poultry
seasoning. Bring to a boil. Stir in celery, carrots, and onion. Reduce
heat, cover, and simmer 15 minutes.
In a small bowl, mix cornstarch and water together until cornstarch is
completely dissolved. Gradually add to soup, stirring constantly. Stir in
noodles and chicken, and heat through.
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