Grandma's Chicken Noodle Soup

It should be no surprise to anyone that I really like a good chicken noodle soup. I posted this creamy chicken soup recipe last year, along with this post on how to fix bland canned chicken noodle soup. It's the ultimate comfort food for me on a snowy day or when I'm sick.

When I was younger my grandma always made the perfect chicken soup for each of the above occasions. Since being on my own, I've tried many times to emulate her exact soup recipe, because there was never a written recipe to go from. She always made it from memory, and never measured the ingredients, and now she's been in a nursing home the last 6 years with Alzheimer's so there is literally no getting the recipe out of her. One thing I did know about her recipe was that she used bullion cubes because she would always put me to work peeling the wrappers off. I used that as a base and built the recipe from there. We made this soup Sunday night for dinner, and I think I did justice to my Grandma's soup recipe.

Another thing that makes this like my Grandma's, and not like other recipes that you see on the internet is that there really is not a lot of ingredients. Recipes I've tried from the internet use a lot of spices like parsley, thyme, bay leaves, etc... and I never remembered green seasonings floating in my grandma's soup, so I kept this simple and didn't put them in mine either. I even made it easier and did it in the crock pot. However, my grandma always used ring shaped noodles. They seriously looked a little like spaghetti-o's, but all uniform in size. I can never find them in the grocery stores here! Does anyone know what I'm talking about and know where I can get them?

Ingredients: 

8 cups water

8 bullion cubes

2 large celery ribs, chopped

2 large carrots, peeled and chopped

3/4 cup diced onion (I use the frozen kind, so much easier, and no crying... and I got 8 free bags with coupons)

1 large chicken breast

salt and pepper to taste

2 cups egg noodles 

Directions:

Chop your onions, carrots, celery, and put them in the bottom of your crock pot. Place the chicken on top of the veggies. Add your water to the crock pot, and then the bullion cubes. Cook on high for about 4 hours. 20 minutes before eating add the egg noodles so they have enough time to cook. Taste your broth and if you need salt and pepper add it now. Remove the chicken breast, chop it up, and put it back into the crock pot. After the egg noodles are done cooking, enjoy!