With cold season on its way, a good chicken soup recipe is invaluable. Here is a recipe that is simple and inexpensive to make.

This recipe makes 4-6 large dinner servings, depending on the amount of water you use.

Ingredients:

• Chicken Bones: Pound for pound, thigh-and-leg quarters are the most inexpensive cut, including whole chickens. Freeze your bones from your meals during the week. The more bones, the richer your soup will be. However, this soup can be made with only one leg/ thigh bone pair.
• One Leg-and-Thigh Quarter with Meat
• 4 Cups Noodles
• Fresh or Frozen Vegetables
• Garlic, Paprika, Onion Powder, Salt, Italian Seasoning, Rosemary, and Lemon Pepper to Taste: If you don’t have all these spices, don’t worry. The most necessary one is salt, with garlic and paprika following second. The others improve flavor but are not absolutely necessary.

How To:

1. Put your chicken bones in a stock pot, cover with water, and boil.
2. At the same time, throw your chicken into the oven and cook for an hour.
3. When your chicken is done, let it cool for a few minutes before removing the meat from the bones. Put the meat in a container and refrigerate for later. Throw the new bones in the pot with the old bones. Add water as you continue boiling as needed to ensure that you do not run out of water.
4. Continue boiling the bones until your family complains of hunger. Ideal boiling time is 1-3 hours after adding the fresh bones. The longer your family can wait, the better, thicker, and more nutritious your soup will be.
5. After 1-3 hours, turn down the heat, remove the bones, and add noodles and meat. If you are using frozen or root vegetables, add them now as well.
6. Add a large amount of garlic, a good amount of paprika, a medium amount of onion powder, about a tsp. salt, small amounts of Italian seasoning and rosemary, and a dash of lemon pepper. To get the precise ratios, you will need to taste your soup several times until you are happy with your mixture. If you are sick, add more garlic and paprika. If you are really sick, add cayenne pepper.
   

   The garlic and paprika improve the color of the soup in addition to the taste.

7. If you are using fresh leafy vegetables (I used beet greens in the pictures, but you can use practically any vegetable you can get your hands on) add them at the very end, after the noodles are fully cooked.
   

   Beet greens will also add to the color of the soup.

8. Boil the soup down until it reaches the desired thickness and use taste to readjust the salt and spices, since adding leafy vegetables may water down the flavor.
9. Serve hot. Store in Tupperware. Add more water when reheating, since the noodles will absorb the broth overnight and cause it to be more casserole-like.