Inspired by the Three French Hens: Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup

I toyed with the idea of Cornish game hens for today's recipe, but this is one of my all time favorite soup recipes and I've been wanting to post it for some time.  And don't you just feel like curling up with a steaming bowl of chicken noodle soup on these wintry nights?  This recipe can be prepared one of two ways: boiling chicken and making your own broth, or making broth from chicken bouillon and precooked chicken.  I usually do it the latter way and cook my chicken on the George Foreman just because I have a hard time getting chicken to be good and moist when I boil it, but you can do it either way.  So here's the recipe, given to me by my talented sister-in-law, Catherine:

Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup

Ingredients:

2 quarts chicken broth (made either by boiling chicken in 2 quarts water with 2 tsp. salt or with chicken bouillon)

3 lbs. chicken, diced

3 large carrots, cut

2 large celery ribs, cut

1 medium onion, diced

1/4 tsp. pepper

1/4 tsp. sage

1/4 tsp. celery salt

1 T. dried parsley

3 cups egg noodles

1 c. evaporated milk

1/2 c. butter

1/2 c. flour

Directions:

Cook vegetables, pepper, sage, celery salt, and parsley in broth for 12 minutes, then add 3 cups egg noodles.  Cook 12 minutes more.  Add 1 cup evaporated milk.  In a separate saucepan, melt butter.  Add flour and stir until smooth.  Add to broth and stir.  Stir in chicken.  Adjust seasonings to taste, adding salt or more pepper if desired.  This soup is also great the next day, but you may need to add a little milk when you reheat it because it can get really thick.