Since snow has decided to rear its ugly head in April, it felt like a good day for a cozy soup meal. I’m not fancy, so I only have one soup that I make that isn’t just from a can. I go off of this recipe for Crack Chicken Noodle Soup, so definitely go there for the actual recipe, but hang out here for a very chill rundown of how I make it 😅 Maybe it’ll give you some of the cozy vibes it gave us when we ate it yesterday.
Its a super easy recipe. Put everything into your pot except for two things. So. Thats my kind of recipe.
The only thing I had to prep was bacon. Fry bacon. I used a whole pack, because the single recipe said 12 pieces. I’m not usually one who likes the bacon super crispy, but you want it to crumble. So do it that way. Take my word for it.
Firstly, I doubled it all. It starts with a bunch of chicken broth and milk. I didn’t have nice homemade chicken broth so I rocked Better than Bouillon. Use what you have!
I always feel nervous at this point because it looks like not even close to enough.
Add a couple cans of cream of chicken soup to make it thicker.
Some ranch seasoning. The packets are WAY more expensive than just buying it in bulk and putting it in an old shaker. Its also easier to justify adding more this way.
So the recipe calls for carrots and celery, but I didn’t have celery so I put in double the carrots. I can confirm that it doesn’t feel lacking without the celery. The carrots are a really yummy sweet addition to the soup. And then chicken. Again, use what you have. I’ve used canned shredded chicken. Rotisserie chicken. Leftover turkey. Whatever. This time around, I had some pre-chopped Pintys chicken from Costco that I bought for a kid who needed options for feeding therapy, and I had most of it left. So I defrosted it and chopped it up a bit extra. Put that stuff in there. Oh and the bacon, too, once its done.
Cream cheese! This is the ingredient that sets this soup apart. It is the BEST part, and I didn’t have any! I texted Cher that I was researching how to make cream cheese, and she instantly called me and came to pick me up and take me to buy some 🤣 Technically, this recipe calls for 3/4 cup, so a double batch only needs 1.5 bricks, buuuuut use both if you can swing it, because its SO good that way!
It dissolves WAY faster and whisks in easier if you hack it up first, so take that extra 30 seconds and do it.
If you have a whisk (or whatever utensil you like) that doesn’t fall into the pot, you get bonus points ⭐️
Get it all boiling up and then let it all simmer happily together in there for a half hour or so.
When you’re approaching time to eat, throw in noodles. The recipe says 8 oz. I don’t really get how noodles are in ounces so I googled, and then I still did my own thing. I usually bust up spaghetti noodles, but this time, I used the “No Yolks” egg noodles. Two bags, because we’re a bunch of noodles over here. I hope someday I had use homemade noodles, but that day is not today.
Cheese. Yes. More cheese.
Can you smell it? Doesn’t it look SO good?? Look how much fuller my pot is now, hahaha! It definitely grows from that initial batch of broth!
This all turned out SO good!
Even the kids can confirm. Only one kid stuck with one bowl, and that kid didn’t complain once. Everyone else had at least seconds. This kid was a “seconds” kid, hahaha!
So there you have it. A crazy delicious soup for this random April winter. Use what you have. Its not fancy, but it feels super indulgent.
My final message to you folks – whoever you are who put your winter gear away, shovelled off your deck, took off your winter tires (whoops), or whatever else, this weather is YOUR fault 🤨 I digress.
Enjoy some soup, guys!!