Roasted Chicken and Chicken Noodle Soup

I've done this before and figured I'd try it again. Only thing I'm worried about is that the bird has been in our freezer since last year (sell by date was November) and it's been in the fridge for a week. It smelled a bit funky but a good rinsing appears to have done away with that.

Anyway, here's how I did it (warning, I did this all by eye, no measurements for the most part):

Preheat oven to 350. I followed the instructions on the bag the chicken was in, which says that for a 5 to 6 pound chicken it needs to be cooked for 1 3/4 - 2 1/4 hours, with an additional 20 to 30 minutes for each pound more. Mine is almost five pounds. It also has one of those spifftacular pop-up thermometers, but I'll be keeping an eye on it anyway. First round was 90 minutes before I checked on it.

I liberally salted and peppered the outside of the bird, as well as sprinkling it with rosemary. I stuffed some chopped garlic and bay leaves in the cavity. No trussing, as we're not sophisticated enough to have kitchen twine. I put it in a sautee pan (see what I mean? We're poor and bought what we could) and shoved it into the oven.

Meanwhile, I chopped up carrots and celery. I let those sit to room temperature while I waited for the chicken to finish cooking (took about two hours). I let that cool down so I could handle picking the chicken apart.

I sauteed garlic, carrots, and celery with butter in a stockpot, then added five cups of water. A liberal bit of chicken boullion since I realized we didn't have any chicken stock or broth. Ended up putting a bit too much in, so it got a peeled potato (an old kitchen trick, the potato absorbs some of the saltiness). I shredded the chicken into the pot, all white meat since that's what I prefer, and DH can pick off what he wants of the dark meat since that's his favorite.

After that, I dumped some uncooked egg noodles in, and ended up needing to add some water back. The water reduced enough that there's not much broth except in the bottom of the pot.

Turned out damn good, if I do say so myself. As for the chicken carcass? It's getting turned into stock tomorrow.