Creamy Smoked Chicken Noodle Soup

[USDA Prime]

A sampling from our 350 recipe cookbook that is soon to be printed (just a few details left).  Guarantee - If this is not the very best, most flavorful chicken noodle soup you've ever tasted, I'll buy you something real nice!!!!

1 leftover Bradley Smoked Chicken (if you ever have one!)
1 Cup Onions, diced
1 Cup Celery, diced
3 Carrots, diced
70-90 ounces Chicken Broth (to consistancy)
2 (10 3/4 Ounce) Cans Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup With Roasted Garlic
1 Tablespoon Freeze-dried Parsley
1 Teaspoon Tarragon
1 Teaspoon Summer Savory
Salt and Pepper, to taste
1 (pound) Box Campanelle or Egg Noodles, cooked per package directions

1.Remove the skin from the chicken and shred the meat from the bone.  Put the chicken meat into a slow cooker along with the onions, celery, and carrots. 

2.Stir in most of the broth, mushroom soup, and herbs then season with salt and pepper.  Cover and cook on HIGH setting for 3-4 hours or LOW for 8-9 hours.

3.When soup is finished, stir in cooked egg noodles.  Adjust seasonings and broth to consistancy.  Serve with crackers or a grilled cheese or peanut butter sandwich!!!!!

[Gizmo]

First time I have ever seen Freeze Dried Parsley.  I have fresh growing.  Wonder how the freeze dried is prepared and how it changes it from fresh?

[Habanero Smoker]

There is a company called LiteHouse that sells freeze dried herb. I never had the parsley, and I'm not sure if that is one that they offer. I generally get their basil, dill, garlic and oregano. The freeze dried herbs have a look and color closer to fresh herbs, and the taste is almost as good as fresh. The garlic is my favorite. It is chopped, has the same flavor as freshly chopped garlic, and saves a lot of time when added to the food.

If anyone is interested, I purchase mine at a local chain supermarket called Price Chopper. They display them in the produce section, not the spice section.

[USDA Prime]

First time I have ever seen Freeze Dried Parsley.  I have fresh growing.  Wonder how the freeze dried is prepared and how it changes it from fresh?

If using freeze-dried, use approximately 1/3 of fresh measurement.

[iceman]

First time I have ever seen Freeze Dried Parsley.  I have fresh growing.  Wonder how the freeze dried is prepared and how it changes it from fresh?

Freeze dried food is getting popular again. It's done at about 30 below zero under a 30 pound vacum. The trays the food sits on are heated just enough for the vacum extractor to suck the moisture out of the air in the food chamber and deposit it in the condenser unit. It's a neat process. Taxidermists are now using them. A friend at the Anchorage crime lab lets me play with the small one they have there. I did a small tray of meatballs and sauce and the stuff tasted like just off the stove after it was re hydrated and heated back up. It took 2 days for it to dry out all the way. He was telling me the bigger chambers take weeks to get all the moisture out. Once the food is copletely dried and vacum sealed the shelf life is indefinate. The little machines run about 15 grand though so it's way out of my budget! Bummer! :(

[Gizmo]

Excellent info folks, thanks.

[La Quinta]

So Ice...freeze dried parsley (or whatever) is different then just dried?

[Consiglieri]

Ice: can't help myself.

Do I understand correctly that you're freeze drying your meat balls in the same equipment that the crime lab uses?  I'm sure they sanitize the bejeezus out the stuff, but...  Well, if it's the crime lab, what exactly are they freeze drying?

I remember the joke about bad, better, and good news, and I'm hoping that we're talking about flash frozen crabs.   ;)  I've had a lot of mileage off that joke, by the way.  The golfers love it; the wives smirk the way they do when I talk about going fishing on Christmas Eve.

[iceman]

Ice: can't help myself.

Do I understand correctly that you're freeze drying your meat balls in the same equipment that the crime lab uses?  I'm sure they sanitize the bejeezus out the stuff, but...  Well, if it's the crime lab, what exactly are they freeze drying?

I remember the joke about bad, better, and good news, and I'm hoping that we're talking about flash frozen crabs.   ;)  I've had a lot of mileage off that joke, by the way.  The golfers love it; the wives smirk the way they do when I talk about going fishing on Christmas Eve.

:D :D :D

I should have clarified that a bit!
There are a half dozen of the guys there that are into mountain climbing big time and they pooled up and bought one to make their own chow for the treks the make. They say the store bought just doesn't cut it on log trips so they make all their own food.
The crime lab actually sends evidence over to the library (yes Library) to be freeze dried. The library uses the larger unit to save valuable books that have had water damage.

[Gizmo]

How versitle is a chicken (or turkey) noodle soup? 
Very!

Had the carcas from the Xmas Turkey held over to make some home made soup.  Yesterday was the day.  There was a lot of meat on it so the 5 quarts of water the recipe called for was a bit shy.  Turns out the extra quart I added was still on the shy side but was glad it was.  My son and I had the soup last night and it was great.  When I went to put the rest in containers for storage, the noodles had soaked up most of the broth so I had a very large pot of turkey, vegetables and noodles.  Thought this wasn't a bad thing as I started thinking of many variations.  Today for lunch, I took one of the contains and added a can of cream of mushroom soup and poped it in the oven and heated it through.  At the end of the bake, I topped it with some cheese for a great turkey noodle casserole.  My wife has not been feeling well and this evening she wanted some soup.  No problem, took some of the left over casserole, added 1 cup of chicken broth and voila, creamy turkey mushroom vegetable noodle soup.  There are probably another thousand variations to go.   ;D

[West Coast Kansan]

Freeze Dried> Sanka Coffee is pretty good  ;D

Gizmo, Tell VA to get well soon.  :(  We just go Holly out of the Hosp. (again) 3 weeks this time.  Looks really good now.  Thankfully.

[Gizmo]

Thanks WCK,
Will do and give Holly a big hug for me as well.