Chicken Noodle Soup New Orleans Style

Ingredients

• 1 large whole fryer chicken
• 1 cup onions -- diced
• 1/2 cup celery -- diced
• 1/2 cup parsley -- minced
• 4 cloves garlic -- minced
• 1 cup carrots -- chopped
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
• 4 quarts Water
• 12 ounces broad egg noodles -- cooked al dente and buttered
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup onion rings -- sliced
• 1 cup mushrooms -- sliced
• 1 cup carrots -- diced
• 1/4 cup cream sherry
• salt & pepper -- to taste

Directions
First, take the chicken and wash thoroughly. Remove the giblets. Do not remove skin. Place the chicken and giblets into crockpot. Add the diced onions, 1/2 c celery, 1/2 c minced parsley, garlic, chopped carrots and bay leaves, poultry seasoning and 2 quarts of the water. With a spoon, evenly distribute the seasoning mixture around the chicken, turn the crock pot to high, and cook for at least six hours (or better still, OVERNIGHT). The longer you cook, the richer the base stock and the more tender the chicken. When the chicken is tender, take a set of tongs or a strainer spoon, remove it from the crock pot (it may tend to fall apart, but that's okay), and set it on a platter to cool. Strain out all the seasoning vegetables from the stock, place the stock into a metal bowl, and place the bowl into the refrigerator or freezer until the chicken fat congeals (which should take about 1 hour). Meanwhile, pick the chicken off the bones and, with a sharp knife, chop it into bit-sized pieces. In a heavy 12-inch skillet, melt the butter and saute the sliced onions, mushrooms, and carrots until they're tender. Add the chicken meat. And over medium-low heat, cook for about 10 minutes. While the chicken and vegetables are sauteing, remove the chicken stock from the refrigerator, skim off all the fat, and place the skimmed stock into a soup pot, along with the remaining 2 quarts of water. At this point, you should season the soup stock to taste with salt and pepper. Add in the sauteed chicken, mushrooms, onion rings and diced carrots -- along with the sherry, the Tabasco, and noodles and as soon as it comes to a boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer the soup for about 15 minutes to allow all the flavors to thoroughly blend and pasta to finish cooking.