Your favorite chicken noodle soup?

I've been craving it lately. Where do you get your favorite chicken noodle soup? What makes it your favorite? What ingredients (other than noodles, chicken, and broth, of course) do you like to see in your soup?

I'm crossing my fingers that no one says any kind of canned soup :) I’ve probably only had two cans of it in my entire life. Thank goodness I grew up with a mom who could cook!

I like mine homemade with a "Mexican?" kick.  Homemade stock, chicken, onions/bell pepper/celery, carrot, a touch of tomato and some chipotle chili in adobo.  I like to add larger pasta than the regular.
 
Good for all that ails you...
 
cy

Funny you should ask.  I have a pot of chicken soup on the stove right now.  My grandmother made the best chicken noodle soup.  I try to make mine just like her's.  She used carrots, celery, dill, parsnips, onions. salt, chicken.  Simmer for an hour or so then take the chicken out.  Cool it, take it off the bone, add back to stock with the veggies.  I like to keep the veggies chunky.  Then I add noodles or matzoh balls, whatever I'm in the mood for.  Nothing like a good bowl of Jewish penicillin to make all your cares go away, at least for a little while. 

KK, soup made that way will cure many things that ail you.

I make some easy soup w/ rotisserie chicken and Rotel tomatoes and... who knows what else? Not as good for you as KK's way though.
Joe

i make it just like my great-grand and grand made it.

if i have a carcass from a roasted chicken, i use that to make the broth - i add in a large carrot, a celery stalk, a chunk of onion, a garlic clove, a bay leaf, some peppercorns.  also the leg bones, which i chop in half, and some bits of skin.  i will stuff the carcass with all the stuff and then tie it up in cheesecloth for the cooking. 

COLD water to the pot (makes a clear broth), add the carcass and add more cold water if there's room and then bring to a boil and then reduce heat so you keep a low simmer going.  i let it simmer for hours - at least 6.

once it's done i remove the carcass and i usually let it cool and then refridge it and then complete it the next day.  once the broth is cold, i remove the majority of the fat that's congealed at the top then i pop it in the pot again and add chopped carrots, onions, celery and bring it up to a slow boil and cook the vegy's.  while they're cooking, i do the noodles (thin egg noodles) in a seperate pot - we always keep the noodles aside until serving...add them to the bowl and then ladle the soup on top.

when the vegy's are about done, i add in the chicken pieces and some parsley (fresh or dried, whichever is on hand) and a touch of s&p and maybe some marjoram (i rarely have fresh, so it's the dried stuff usually).  if it's summer time i'll also add in some fresh chives chopped (i grow them).

i never put too much salt in...i prefer to do that as i'm eating it as tastes are different from day to day. also, if others are going to be eating it, different people may like more or less than i do, so i like to let them customize for their preference.

if i don't have a carcass or am just doing a 'quick' soup to eat immediately, i'll use whole skinless chicken legs.  do the cold water in the pot; add the chicken legs and then slow boil until the meat is done and then remove the meat and let the bones cook more - i add in the stock items at this point and i do crack the bones after i've removed the meat.  once the broth has cooked for at least 4 hours, i remove the bones/stock items and add the chopped vegy's and cook them until done...adding in s&p, the herbs and the meat for reheating when the vegy's are about done.  again, noodles cooked/kept seperate.

keeping the noodles separate avoids overly mushy noodles and loss of broth.  also, pouring the hot soup over the cooled noodles allows you to eat the soup immediately rather than having to allow it to cool off a bit.

starting off with really cold water makes a nice clear broth.  allowing the bones to cook for a really long time gets all the nutrients that are inside out and into the broth and makes it really flavorful (so, not much salt is really needed).

if i'm going to freeze it, i don't put the carrots in the containers of what's to be frozen as they don't keep well since i like them a bit well-done in my soup.  so, i just cook some to add in when i am going to defrost a serving.  the noodles can also be frozen (or cooked as needed).  if i freeze them, they're portioned out into plastic zip bags or small plastic containers.  i defrost them by putting them in hot water (unfreezes them and rehydrates them at the same time).

Has to be my Bubbie's made with sinkers.

I whole bunch of parsley with root and 1 whole bunch of dill with root, carefully washed, tied up with string and boiled up with the soup. 

It's a two day process for me - a whole chicken cut up with bay leaf and a quartered onion to the soup pot.  Meat is removed off the carcass when cooled, broth put up in a separate container overnight, then skim off the congealed fat the next day, add broth to a stockpot with about 3 stalks of celery cut in 1/2" pieces, cook about twenty minutes, then bring to a roiling boil and add egg noodles and meat.  I have to admit the broth never seems to have a strong enough chicken flavor on it's own, and I end up boosting it with a couple of heaping teaspoons of chicken flavored Redi Base.

I like Jocelyn's idea of keeping the noodles on the side though, as I get a little heavy handed when adding them, and at times had too little broth, and way too many noodles, plus there is that mushy factor after sitting in the hot soup-

 

A friend in Florida once made me chicken soup while I was vacationing at her home.

I've never seen or heard of it being made this way.  

Sprinkle chicken all over with Everglades Seasoning which is a Florida thing.

Put in roasting pan and bake.

Put all of the juices and fat that collected in the pan into a pot. Pull the chicken off of the bone and put in the pot along with water and a can of corn.   Heat up and serve over thin egg noodles.

It was amazing.  (But I still like Bubbie's best!)

Chicken noodle soup or more accurately, chicken pasta soups are among my favorites. I have countless variations, but certain themes seem to reoccur often.

I tend to favor medium shell pasta for its durability and versatility. The shells make nice nesting areas for additions such as corn, peas, beans or whatever is going into the pot that day.

I am also a fan of smoked sausage, so if the budget allows it is sliced into coin sized segments and included in the mix which adds great flavor and reduces the need for added salt

Adding raw coriander toward the end of the cooking process (finely chopped is best) adds incredible flavor.  Another tip is to add vegetables well into the cooking process.  This recipe for Chicken Mulligatawny is impressive and a nice variation on the regular chicken soup.

it's sweet that we all think mom's gran's or great gran's chickie soup was the best. I think my mom's is the best. Flavorful, and never greasy. Anyway, what makes hers special and she does this one in a while. She makes tiny meatballs from the bits of chicken from the soup stock. Shredded away from necks, some breasts, leg..whatever you. It shredded, and then some soft breadcrumbs are added, a bit of parmesan cheese, a bit of salt and white pepper, nutmeg, and held together with an egg. She then shapes them into small meatballs the size of a marble 

Quite nice with some fine homemade egg noodles, tiny chicken meatballs, and the flavourful broth!