Grandma Waldrop’s Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

By Bailey Roden, Arizona Farm Bureau Intern

When I was younger, I spent a lot of time in Casa Grande with my grandparents. Lucky for me my Grandma is an amazing cook. She can make just about anything whether it’s from scratch or a recipe that she put her own spin on. She is like an artist in the kitchen. The plate is the canvas and the ingredients are the paint.  Not only does she make such beautiful meals but meals that have the power to make you feel better. I remember one time I was in Casa Grande and had fallen ill with the flu. I felt awful. I could not even leave the bed. I had heard my grandma in the kitchen, where she was making her homemade chicken noodle soup. What makes this soup so incredible is the time and patience my grandma has while in the kitchen.

She starts with the noodle making process. If it is just the two of us she only uses two eggs and cracks them into a bowl. Next, she adds a teaspoon of salt and then she begins to scramble the eggs. After that, she adds two cups of flour to the scrambled eggs. She works the flour into the eggs until it is pliable. If the mixture is still sticky she works in more flour. Once the flour is pliable she takes out a rolling pin and rolls it out. Then, she cuts it into a desired shape. Being the caring grandmother she is, she cuts the dough into smaller bite-size squares. Once the dough was shaped she then let it rest, because the dough will rise. Once the dough rises she boils the noodles for two minutes.

For the actual soup part of the meal, she cooks the chicken and uses the broth in the pan from the chicken she had just cooked and would add Cream of Chicken soup along with carrots, peas, and corn. A can of chicken noodle soup is no match for my grandma’s homemade masterpiece. Once the warmth of this amazing soup had hit my sore throat I had started to feel a bit better. It has always meant so much to me the careful thought my grandma puts into the meals she prepares for her family. The chances of you leaving my grandma’s house on an empty stomach are zero.

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