Chicken Noodle Soup - Take Two

Ingredients:

• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts (or 2 pounds if you like)
• 16 cups water (divided)
• 1 sprig fresh rosemary
• 2 stems fresh parsley
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 small onion, diced
• several shakes of dried thyme leaves
• salt and pepper to taste
• chicken bullion to taste
• 3 nice sized carrots, chopped
• 4 celery stalks, chopped
• 1 small head of cabbage, chopped
• 1 package (8.8 oz) egg noodles

Instructions:

1. Add the chicken, rosemary, parsley, garlic, onion, thyme, salt and pepper to 8 cups of water and bring to a boil.  Simmer for about 35 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, peal and dice the carrots, chop the celery, and chop the cabbage.
3. Once the chicken is done simmering remove it from the water, and remove the parsley stems and rosemary sprig.  Do not discard the water.
4. Add 4 more cups of water as well as some chicken bullion and return to a boil.
5. Add the carrots and boil for a couple of minutes, add the celery and continue boiling for a couple of minutes.
6. While the carrots and celery are boiling shred the chicken and set it aside.
7. Add the noodles and cabbage and cook as long as the noodles say to cook.
8. Add back the chicken and heat through.
9. Taste the broth, if it needs salt or pepper add more.

This is how I made this soup this time, but I might change it up again next time.  Honestly, I used 4 cups of chicken broth instead of 4 of the cups of water and the chicken bullion.  I just thought it looked simpler this way, and I know that the way I have it listed works too.  And this time I tried taking the parsley and rosemary out after simmering the chicken.  Maybe next time I will chop those two herbs up and leave them in.  While eating this soup it was also apparent that these noodles were difficult to manage because they were so long, and they tended to splash broth all over the table.  Never fear, they did not hold their shape.  Although, next time I might experiment with different noodles.  Here is a picture of the soup after a day in the fridge:

Although I made vast modifications, and definitely improvements, the initial inspiration for this soup came from:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/rosemary-chicken-noodle-soup/