Chicken (Noodle) Soup

I've eaten chicken soup a lot at home. My mom tends to make it whenever we have leftover rotisserie chicken. She takes all the skin off and is left with nice tender chicken meat.

Well, a couple of years ago, Andrew caught some kind of bug or flu so I decided to make him some chicken soup. It's definitely one of those comfort foods that you turn to when the weather is cold outside. Since it's been raining, I decided to make some.

Ingredients
1-1.5 chicken breast
1 medium carrot (diced)
celery (sliced--about the same amount as the carrot)
1 medium onion (diced)
1 clove of garlic (minced)
4 cups chicken broth
2 cups pasta (I use Wacky Mac Veggie Spirals bc I like the colors, and they're made from veggies. Sometimes, I substitute this for Trader Joe's Harvest Grains)
salt
pepper

I realize that many people like to use bay leaves or parsley or oregano and thyme in their chicken soup, but I just like mine plain. If you're an "herby" chicken soup lover, this is not the soup for you.

Trim the fat off of your chicken breast and place in a pot of boiling water. Allow it to cook all the way through. Remove the cooked chicken from the water (don't discard the water) and chop into small cubes. Further break up the cubes by tearing up the meat with your hands. (It'll be really hot so be careful!)

Next, heat up a large pot/dutch oven and put a small amount of oil in the pot. Add all the veggies and cook for a few minutes. Add the chicken and mix it up! Pour in the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Allow to boil for a few minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Next, add the pasta and allow to cook. Reduce heat and simmer until all the veggies and pasta are nice and tender. If you like your pasta al dente, then don't add the pasta until the end.

Note, as soon as you add the pasta, it's going to soak up a lot of the liquid. This is where that boiled chicken water comes in. Skim off any oil that's at the top of your chicken water, and add some of the water to the level of liquid that you like. I like my soups chunky, so this recipe will be a bit chunkier than most people might like. If you like more of a "soupy" soup, then ... hahaha... soupy soup. Anyway, then just add less pasta or chicken.

I also like my soup really peppery, so I use a lot of freshly ground pepper... yum!
One thing I notice with this, is that the chicken isn't as tender as when my mom uses rotisserie chicken. I'm not really sure how to remedy this. Any suggestions?

Also, I noticed I like to make nouns into adjectives by adding a "y." I'm not really sure how to remedy this. Any "suggestiony" suggestions?