Kristen Hampton's World Famous Chicken Noodle Soup!

 

I know everyone in the world probably already has a chicken noodle soup recipe that they love, and most are probably pretty much the same, but believe it or not...I had NEVER in my life made Chicken Noodle soup!

I grew up eating Campbells canned chicken noodle soup and I loved it, it was good enough for me as I didn't get the craving for chicken noodle soup that often...but that was cause I had NEVER in my life had Kristen Hampton's World Famous Chicken Noodle Soup!

Who is Kristen Hampton? Kristen is a gift to this world! She's this quirky character who works for WBTV in Charlotte NC doing a segment called Good News and she goes out and about and looks for the good in the world, the good in people and she reports on those things. Her fame has exploded and she's a Facebook and YouTube sensation, just google Kristen Hampton and you will find lots of information about her.

Recently she did a live video run simultaneously on Facebook and YouTube in which she shows us how to make her World Famous Chicken Noodle Soup while she urged people to donate to Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans to help the people that have been devastated by Hurricane Laura and Hurricane Delta, two hurricanes in the same vicinity just six weeks apart, they had not even cleaned up from the first hurricane when the second one hit. To date she has raised $9,418.00. 

Here's the video, it's rather long but she's so entertaining that you don't even notice. And you can still donate to the cause. 

So I just wanted to get down on my blog the ingredients on how to make this soup because it was as Kristen would say "Dadgum-delicious!" Kristen doesn't give you measurements, you just gotta wing it.

Ingredients:

1/2 Onion

Garlic - I used two cloves minced in my garlic press, but I think three would have been ok. 

6 Carrots 

5 Stalks Celery

2 boxes Chicken Broth (low sodium) She says Chicken Stock but I couldn't find any and the broth worked just fine

Better Than Bouillon Roasted Chicken Base (to taste) - this stuff is amazing!!

Cooked Chicken - I baked 4 big boneless chicken breasts and only used two for the soup. Baked them with nothing but salt and pepper as seasoning.

Salt - Pepper - Thyme (used dried, couldn't find fresh)

I started out by seasoning the chicken breasts with salt and pepper and placing them inside a foil envelope, (two sheets of foil, one on top one on bottom and then you fold all four sides so the chicken is in a little foil envelope. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour, set aside to cool, don't open the envelope so the juices go back into the meat.

During the time the chicken is baking, you can be chopping your veggies. Once chicken is cooked, add olive oil to your  soup pot, then added the onions and cook them for about 3 to 5 minutes, just until they soften, then I added the celery and carrots which I cut pretty thinly added salt and pepper, but not a lot because the Better Than Bouillon has lots of salt in it. Now cook, stirring frequently for probably another 5 to 6 minutes. 

Once the veggies are to your satisfaction, add the chicken broth, both boxes and then what I think was the secret ingredient, I add a big spoonful of Better than Bouillon! I don't know how long this product has been around but I just recently started hearing about it and I can't wait to try all the other flavors, check the other flavors out here. 

Then you wait for everything to come to a boil again and then taste it and see if you need to add more BTB, I know that next time I will probably add another box of chicken broth or water. Also at this time I added a sprinkle of dried thyme.

While waiting for the soup to come to a boil, chop your chicken, I've seen other people shred the chicken but I like smaller bite-size pieces best. 

Once it comes to a boil, add egg noodles and sprinkle with dried thyme, I used wide egg noodles. I put in the whole package and like Kristen says "that's too many noods", it was too many noodles, next time half a bag instead. Let that boil for 5 minutes or so and then add your chicken, let it boil a bit and taste to see if you need more BTB, which I did and next time way more pepper. 

And that it is it. Very good chicken noodle soup, easy to make and so hearty and comforting. Definitely going to be something I made again and again. If you have a great soup recipe, please share in comments or send me a link to the recipe.