Chicken Soup for a cold

I made chicken soup yesterday but I was too sick to write about it.  The stock I made the other day when I boned the two chicken breasts, I put the bones in a stock pot in a 350º oven for 45 minutes. When the pot was cool I added 2 bay leaves, an onion cut in half (skin and all, skin gives color), a carrot cut in 3 pieces and a stick of celery also cut in 3 or 4 pieces. Fill pot with water put on high heat, bring to a boil then turn to low and simmer 2 hours more or less. Strain the stock with a sieve or best of all, cheese cloth.

To make soup, dice an onion, carrot and stick of celery, put in a pot with oil on medium high heat and sweat till the onions are  translucent.  Take vegetables out of the pot and put in boneless chicken cut into bite size pieces and seasoned. Add more oil if necessary and brown all round.  Add vegetables back in and fill pot with chicken stock. Add a bay leaf and salt and pepper to taste.  A star anise seed is nice if you have some. Simmer for an hour.

While the soup is cooking make the noodles.  One egg at room temperature and 2/3 cup of flour.  Make a well in the flour and break the egg into it.  Use a fork stirring in the center, gradually taking up more flour until all the flour is stuck in a ball.  If it is sticky add more flour and work it a bit.  Keep adding flour till it isn't sticky then put it in the fridge.  Get the pasta roller out or a rolling pin and process the pasta in two halves, easier to handle. I used fettuccine cutters and cut the pasta into 2 inch strips.  When pasta comes out of the cutter blades I let it fall onto a cookie sheet and dredge it in flour so it won't stick to itself. If I don't have a pasta roller handy I just roll the dough out and cut it into noodles with a knife.

5 minutes before I want to serve soup add the noodles in (longer for thicker noodles).  When they are done I serve the soup. Yup, it definitely makes one feel better.