January is almost here, and it can be a really dreary month as the holidays are over and the weather tends to get a lot colder. However, it is also a great time to cheer yourself up with some homemade recipes like chicken noodle soup, a simple dish known to keep you warm on those chilly winter evenings.

Mary Berry has revealed that making "hearty" and "healthy" soup that is "good for the soul" is incredibly easy, but the secret is to buy or make some high grade chicken stock. In her cookbook 'Mary Berry's Quick Cooking', she said: "It's really important to use good quality chicken stock as this will give the soup the best flavour. If you are using leftover chicken from a roast, you should save the carcass to make a homemade stock."

It might seem easy to just crumble a stock cube into some hot water and use it as your base, but your chicken noodle soup is more likely to come out bland and watery.

It is really simple to make chicken noodle soup, and Mary Berry's recipe only takes 20 to 25 minutes to make from scratch, but the key to making it really tasty is using the right stock.

Chicken stock is the foundation of the soup, and a good quality one will already have a lot of seasoning to make the dish richer and have a much fuller flavour.

Using a good stock just means the soup will have more depth and be better at balancing out the other ingredients so you will have a comforting meal without much cooking effort.

Homemade or high quality chicken stock will also have more nutrients so is a lot healthier for you, and can help you feel better if you are chocked with a cold at this time of year.

You will need:

• 1.7 litres of hot chicken stock
• 100g of cooked chicken
• 50g of egg noodles (roughly two nests)
• One carrot (halved and thinly sliced)
• One onion (thinly sliced)
• A knob of butter
• Four spring onions (to garnish)

Method

1. To begin, slice the carrot and onion into thin slices. Then, melt the butter in a large saucepan and add chopped vegetables.

2. Cook the onion and carrot pieces on a high heat for three to five minutes. Then pour the hot chicken stock into the saucepan and cover with a lid.

3. Bring the chicken stock to a boil, reduce the heat so the mixture is simmering and then let it cook for five minutes.

4. Next, break the noodles into small pieces, and then add them to the chicken stock. Cover the pan again and let it cook for five more minutes until the noodles have softened.

5. Your tasty and warming chicken noodle soup is ready to eat. Slice the spring onions diagonally, sprinkle on top of the soup to serve.