Tyler Florence's Chicken Noodle Soup

When Sarah from A Taste of Home Cooking posted that this month's theme for the recipe swap was Celebrity Recipes, I was excited.  Though I think I was more excited to pass along my recipe for Rachael Ray's poached flounder than I was to receive my assignment.  I mean, why wouldn't I want someone else to try out one of our favorites?!

When I was sent my assignment of Tyler Florence's chicken noodle soup (submitted by Jaida of Sweet Beginnings) I was excited.  I love making chicken soup, but my go-to recipe is my grandma's which takes several hours to make.  This one takes less than an hour (including prep time) so I'm glad to add something to my repertoire for when I want soup but don't have all day to make it.  This will be perfect for if my husband or I come down with a cold or something and would like soup when we get home.

The soup was super easy to make.  I needed to cook the chicken to shred, so I put on a smaller pot to boil and then got chopping to prep the veggies that go into the soup.  Just before I put the veggies into the soup pot, I put the chicken breasts in to smaller pot and turned it down to simmer to poach the chicken.  By the time I had put the noodles into the dish, the chicken was ready to shred.

I am always buying chicken stock to use in recipes, but rarely use it as a base for soup, so I liked being able to season it up and have it as it was meant to be eaten.  I will definitely make this again!

***And check out Dawn's post about the poached fish!

Tyler Florence's Chicken Noodle Soup (adapted from this recipe by Sweet Beginnings)

Ingredients 
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 
1 medium onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced 
2 medium carrots, cut diagonally into 1/2-inch-thick slices 
2 celery ribs, halved lengthwise, and cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices 
4 fresh thyme sprigs 
1 bay leaf 
2 quarts chicken stock (I used Imagine Kosher Free-Range Chicken Stock) 
8 ounces dried wide egg noodles 
2 cups shredded cooked chicken 
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 

Directions 
- Place a soup pot over medium heat and coat with the oil. Add the onion, garlic, carrots, celery, thyme and bay leaf. Cook and stir for about 6 minutes, until the vegetables are softened but not browned. 
- Pour in the chicken stock and bring the liquid to a boil. Add the noodles and simmer for 5 minutes until tender. 
- Fold in the chicken, and continue to simmer for another couple of minutes to heat through; season with salt and pepper.