Just tonight my son Timothy could not go to sleep. ‘My heart is sore!’, he sobbed. We tried hard not to give in to his requests for more dinner or permanent parental company in his bedroom – but it’s tough negotiating with an emotional three year old!

2019 has bolted – we are well out of the starting blocks. For some, 2018 was a tough year and perhaps you were happy to bid it farewell. It seems to me 2019 may be a challenging year, especially for a few of ‘my people’. Someone’s cancer is no longer treatable and their time is short. A marriage is in need of restoration. Someone has lost a father. Another faces a legal battle.

If you know of someone who has a heavy heart right now and you have no words, here’s a simple but heart-warming offering: chicken noodle soup. It’s a bit of work, but worth the effort. And if you make it over two days it always feels a little simpler…

INGREDIENTS

• 1 uncooked whole chicken
• 3 medium onions
• 3-4 large carrots
• 3-4 sticks of celery
• 3 garlic cloves
• 4-5 pepper corns
• 2 bay leaves
• A bunch of fresh herbs – rosemary, thyme, oreganum or marjoram
• Butter and olive oil for frying
• 150g egg noodles (I use the fine ones)
• Salt and pepper
• 1 litre chicken stock

METHOD

In a large 5 litre pot, brown the chicken in a little olive and butter. This helps seal the moisture in the chicken and the crisping up of the chicken skin gives it a great flavour. Nothing worse than a flabby boiled chicken!

Chop two celery sticks, two carrots, the garlic cloves and two onions into large chunks. You can also add the celery leaves to the pot – these vegetables are for creating the soup flavour and will be discarded later.

Fry the chunky veg (first onion, then carrots & celery) for a couple of minutes with the chicken to get that lovely fried onion flavour going. Then add your chicken stock, bay leaves, pepper corns & fresh herbs. (I don’t chop the herbs much as the flavour will be released and the leaves and stalks strained out later. ) Fill the pot up with water until the chicken is pretty much covered. Bring to the boil and simmer for an hour.

If you’re making the soup over 2 days (my recommendation), cool the soup in the fridge overnight, and the next day skim off any excess fat which will have solidified on the surface. Remove the chicken for shredding and strain the soup liquid into a pot. My husband helped me with this activity last time and we forgot to put an empty pot under the strainer. Don’t do that. You will lose soup! (It can happen when you have small children and it’s been a long day).

The boiled chunky veg need not be thrown out – they’re pretty tasty if you don’t mind the mush!

Remove the skin, fat and any gristly bits of the chicken and shred into bite size pieces. You can do this with your hands. It’s a messy job – your kids will love helping with this part if you’re feeling brave and not in a rush! I use all the meat for the soup and bulk it up for volume with some extra stock – but you can set some aside for chicken mayo sarmies.

For the soup vegetables, chop everything fairly finely. Peel and chop the remaining onion, carrots and celery. (Don’t use the celery leaves this time).

Fry the onions in a little butter and olive oil, and when you see the lovely golden brown colour coming through as they start to caramelise, add the carrots and celery and fry for a further couple of minutes. You can boil the noodles in the meantime. I break the hard noodles up into smaller bits before boiling. Because they cook so quickly, it’s safer to cook them and add them right at the end of the process so they don’t end up too soft & mushy.

Add your strained stock to the pot and boil the vegetables until tender for 15-20 minutes. You may want to add extra chicken stock to make it go further – you can judge this by the amount of chicken and noodles you have compared to the soup liquid and what sort of consistency you prefer. Add the chicken and allow the meat to heat up for a couple of minutes, then turn the heat off and add the cooked, strained noodles. Voila, your soup is ready! Serve hot with some freshly chopped parsely (or chives) and a buttered slice of wholegrain bread.

Decant the cooled soup into a suitable container and deliver with love! I use an empty ice cream tub so it’s hassle free and you don’t have to ask for your container to be returned. You can also freeze it for up to three months. May your soup (& your love) warm many hearts!

“The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” Psalm 34:18