• 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 pounds chicken pieces. I use dark meat - white meat gets too dry, but choose what you prefer

• 4 cups water, 4 cups chicken broth - canned is fine, or use my recipe at the bottom of the page!

• 1 teaspoon seasoned salt

• 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste

• 1/4 teaspoon pepper

• 1 small onion chopped

• 1/2 small bag baby carrots

• 2 stalks celery, chopped (you can buy it prechopped in the deli)

• 1/4 cup parsley, chopped

• 1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram or basil

• 1 bay leaf

• 6 ounces noodles

PREPARATION:

Place everything EXCEPT the noodles in the Crock Pot. Cover and cook on low for 5 to 6 hours. Remove chicken and bay leaf from pot; take meat from bones, dice, and return to broth, and add the noodles. Bump up the crock pot setting to HIGH and cook another half hour or until noodles are done (this is a good time to grab & fix a bagged salad and some rolls.)

Easy and yummy!

We're all busy but want to feel like Martha Stewart and provide really good food for our family. One way to do that is make your own chicken stock (in the crockpot of course!)

You will need:

Equipment

• A crock pot

• Empty, clean ice cube trays

• Cheesecloth and a strainer

• Gallon Ziploc Freezer Bags

Ingredients

• One chicken carcass from a roast chicken

• Some carrots

• Some celery

• An Onion

• Seasonings of your choice - thyme, basil, parsley

This recipe starts the night before with a yummy chicken dinner. No, you don't have to make a roast chicken from scratch! Pick up a chicken at the grocery store deli - or even your local chicken join like Boston chicken. When dinner is over, drop the carcass into your crockpot (ideally get some of those crockpot liners if you can, they save SO Much time on cleanup!), cover it with water, and throw in a bay leaf, an onion (quartered) a couple carrots roughly chopped, and a couple stalks of celery, also roughly chopped. If you have any thyme or basil, or parsely, throw them in.

Now put the lid on, set the crock cooker on low and go to bed! In the morning you're going to have a whole crock pot full of rich, savory chicken stock. Strain it (through cheesecloth if you have it) and pour into empty ice cube trays to freeze. Throw away all the 'bits'.

When you get home from work (or later that evening) pop those chicken stock cubes from the ice cube trays into a gallon ziploc freezer bag and you're done - not too much work and the chicken stock is WAY yummier than cans.