I love chicken and noodles. The way I make it my family says it's soup but I don't.
1 whole chicken (remove the giblets) I use a roasting chicken (do they even sell stewing chickens anymore?)
1 whole cut up onion
2 stalks of celery - I used to leave them whole and remove when chicken was cooked, but now I cut it up and leave it in
I put all this in a pot, fill it till the chicken is 3/4's covered. Add salt and pepper to taste. I quit using salt because I add a couple chicken bullion cubes or chick broth which already has a lot of salt.
Bring to boil then reduce heat and let simmer for an hour or so - until the chicken is falling off the bone.
Remove the chicken from the pot, let it cool and add cut up sliced carrots. (I like the large carrots over the small ones) and let them cook while the chicken cools.
Slice up the chicken and add it with the noodles to pot and cook until the noodles are done.
My family prefers the noodles in the bag that are dry. My mom had found some frozen noodles that were very much like her home made noodles that were very good. But my family thought they were too thick. When I was very young my mom made noodles and I loved them. I thought it was because we were poor (we weren't but for some reason I thought were). It's a personal choice.
My friend uses a rotisserie chicken, she takes the meat off the bone and stews the bones with the onions and celery and 3 - 4 quarts of water. It's a nice short cut. We get the rotisseri chickens a lot, so I sometimes stew the bones and save the broth for a later date.