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If you have some leftover chicken and odds and ends, crack chicken noodle soup makes a great dinner.
Great Use For Leftover Chicken
We all have leftover chicken at times and there’s lots of ways to use it.
I got into a rut using mine. I’d forget it sometimes and I didn’t like that because I’d have to toss it out.
This recipe caught my eye on my friend Lisa’s site. I knew I had to make this–with my own touches–because it looked simply delicious.
The Forgotten Veggies
It’s also a great way to use up any odd veggies you have in the crisper, especially celery and carrots. That’s a couple of other things I have to end up tossing because I forgot about them; especially when I’d already used the lovely green outer stalks of the celery and only the anaemic inner stalks were left. In this soup, the color doesn’t matter much, unlike a salad. As for carrots, if there’s a couple left, they tend to get buried under the newer stuff in the crisper (yes I know about rotation LOL, sometimes I’m just too lazy).
This recipe sort of encourages you to use those bits and pieces you tend to forget. That also includes odds and ends of pasta.
As for the ranch seasoning, you can make your own. I give a link to a reduced-sodium recipe in the ingredient list.
Pasta
Who doesn’t have small amounts of pasta that don’t quite make up one serving?
I don’t like to throw anything out so I hold onto those odd bits telling myself I’ll add them to the new box I’ll buy. That works out well most of the time.
However, you can use those bits in this soup. The recipe calls for spaghetti or similar-shaped pasta. But who says you can’t use elbows if that’s what you have? I don’t know if that’s a radical idea or what they call “thinking outside the box” (no pun intended here). It does use up what you have and it’s all the same regardless of shape.
The Recipe
Crack Chicken Noodle Soup
Ingredients
- 2 carrots diced
- 2 stalks celery sliced
- 1 small onion sliced
- 2 tbs olive oil
- 3 tbs ranch seasoning mix see NOTES
- 2 tsp dill weed
- 32 oz chicken stock
- 1 can 10.5 oz condensed cream of chicken soup
- 3 cups cooked chicken diced
- 6 slices crisp bacon crumbled
- 8 oz spaghetti
- 1 cup sharp cheddar cheese
- 2 cups half-and-half -OR- light cream
Instructions
- Heat oil in a large, deep stock pot over medium-high heat. Add the celery, carrots and onion and cook until the veggies begin to get tender.
- Add the ranch dressing/seasoning, stirring to make sure the veggies are coated. Stir in the stock, condensed soup, chicken, bacon, dill weed and spaghetti (break the spaghetti in half).
- Heat to boiling, then reduce heat to low and cook until spaghetti is tender. Add the cheese and the cream. Heat through, about 5 minutes.
