Recipe Box: The Sunday Soup

Since I was a little girl I remember this wonderful soup my mom used to make every Sunday. It was a chicken-noodle soup. You probably think I am crazy raving about chicken-noodle soup, but this one is special for me. It reminds me of home, Poland. Sunday morning and my mom would start the soup, whole chicken cut into pieces, vegetables... whole house was filled with aroma of the soup, and the longer you simmer it, the better it tasted. It is a tradition in Poland that Sunday's first course is this chicken-noodle soup.
My mom lives here in Chicago now, and still on Sundays she makes that soup. I have been practicing it, also. Not every Sunday yet, but once on a while, on a cold afternoon, it's just great to have bowl of this wonderful homemade soup, that worms you up from inside, and just makes you feel better. Great for hangovers!
I just made it last week. We came back from Mexico, from the nice warm weather to cold Chicago and I just wanted soup. Picture is not the greatest - but you get the idea. It's a chicken-noodle soup, but we don't put the chicken meat into the plate, once the soup is cooked, I take the chicken out, take it of the bones, and make something with it. (I will talk about it later).
I do not measure the ingredients, I usually just eyeball everything, and once it cooks for a while (about an hour), I try it and see what is missing. Make sure you cook it long enough before you try it, there is a raw chicken in it. And I always make a huge pot of it, it's nice to have a homemade broth leftover...

Ingredients:

• whole chicken cut into pieces
• 2-3 large carrots, cut into pieces
• 1 parsley root, whole, or cut
• 4-5 celery stalks, cut into pieces
• 1 large onion
• bouquet of flat leaf parsley, tied with kitchen twine(for easy removal)
  
• 10 whole peppercorns
• 2-3 bay leaves
• salt
  
• 1 chicken and 1 beef bullion cube
• package of thin egg noodles
  

One, very important thing here is the onion. There is a special way to prep the onion before it goes into the pot - cut in in the half, and place it on the gas burner, lit the burner to medium-high heat and let the onion burn. It will slowly become black in some places. Use thongs to turn it around, to get both sides. After about 8-10 minutes it should be ready to go to the pot. Fill 3/4 of a big pot with water, put all the ingredients into it, add onion, and cook it on medium high until boils. Reduce the heat to medium (even low) and let it cook for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. It needs time, so be patient. Cook the noodles according to directions. Do not put them into the soup. Once the soup is ready, fill the bowl with noodles, add broth, carrots, fresh parsley, fresh ground pepper... and you're ready to go...

Now, the chicken we have left from the soup. Last week I made chicken pot pie. I had bunch of broth and chicken already cooked. I found this fantastic recipe in Sunset Magazine on-line. I am not a big fun of pot pies and casseroles - but this one was really good. Click here for the recipe. The thyme and mushrooms just make it so yummy! I used Pillsbury biscuits to top my potpie, it was too late to make them from scratch.