Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Ingredients

• One 3 1/2-pound chicken, cut into parts – breast, thighs, backs, wings and neck, if available
• 5 carrots
• 5 ribs celery, including celery tops for the stock
• 1 onion, quartered
• 3 cloves of garlic, peel on, cut in half
• 2 to 3 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1 bunch parsley
• 5 whole peppercorns
• Salt
• 4 to 8 ounces egg noodles
• Freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1. Pull the breast meat away from the breast bones and take the thigh meat off the thigh bone. Put that meat in a bowl, cover it, and tuck it into the refrigerator until the soup is nearly ready for it.
2. Peel off and throw away the biggest pieces of skin from the breasts and thighs, then trim off any extra fat you see on the chicken pieces.
3. For the quick parboil, put the breast and thigh bones, back, leg, neck, and wings into a pot with an 8 quart capacity. Add enough water to cover, heat until it is boiling hard, and keep it there for 3 minutes. Take the pot off the heat, pour away the water, then rinse both the bones and the pot.
4. Set the parboiled bones back into the clean pot. Drop in a couple carrots and a couple celery ribs, all chopped into 2 inch chunks, plus celery tops if they are around; fennel tops or leek greens can go in too, if you have them.
5. Add the onion quarters, the halved garlic, the thyme, 1/2 the parsley, and the peppercorns.
6. Pour in water until it stands 1 or 2 inches above everything, about 3 quarts. Warm it to a quiet simmer, about 185 degrees F, then cook for 1 1/2 hours with the lid partly on; you want only tiny, occasional bubbles.
7. After 1 1/2 hours, strain the stock and keep the liquid, removing the bones and vegetables. If you like, pick over the bones and save whatever meat is still clinging to them, though after the parboil and 1 1/2 hours on the stove it will be pretty dry and mild; it can still be used for chicken salad. Wash the pot, then pour the stock back in.
8. Taste the stock, which should be plain at this point because no salt has gone in yet. Season with salt to your taste; as a guide, use 2 teaspoons of salt for each quart of stock.
9. Stir the sliced carrots and celery into the stock, and bring the pot back to a simmer.
10. Cut the raw breast and thigh meat into small pieces sized for a spoon.
11. Slide that chicken into the pot with the stock, carrots, and celery, and ease everything back to a low simmer.
12. Scatter in the egg noodles, then let the soup come back to a simmer. They will swell quite a bit as they cook in the broth, so do not be surprised when they look like more than you added.
13. Simmer until the egg noodles reach al dente and the chicken is cooked through; depending on the noodles you bought, figure about 5 minutes or so.
14. Finish by stirring in a handful of chopped fresh parsley. Grind in black pepper, then add more thyme and salt until it tastes right.