Hello, welcome to my second blog post! On today’s episode, I’m going to tell you about this amazing recipe that my family absolutely loves, and which has been handed down to me from my mom and her mom before that! This recipe is sure to please everyone!
This is a recipe for a really, really, really good chicken soup! Its very simple, cleansing and great for a cold day when you’re craving something warm and liquid!
The first step is to prepare the broth. Start with a big pot and place a whole chicken inside. I tend to prefer organically raised chicken, but if your budget requires it non-organic will be fine as well. Then, fill the pot with water leaving about an inch or two clearance from the brim. This is key to make sure that the soup doesn’t boil over the rim!
Once you’ve got your chicken bathing in it’s bath, bring the pot to boil. I don’t bother putting any salt or spices in the soup at this point, as there is a risk that you’ll put too much in. In addition, it’s also good at this point to not salt or spice the water so that it’s free to pick up as much flavour as possible from the chicken.
Once you have brought it to boil, reduce the heat to a simmer and start putting vegetables into the pot. I tend to begin preparing vegetables while the water is heating up. You can be creative here and put in pretty much anything, although you certainly can’t go wrong with some carrots, onions, celery, and other such vegetables. If you’d like the soup to be a little bit heavier, it’s a great option to put in some chopped potatoes. This will add a delicious flavour and make the soup a bit more starchy, which I love.
Once all of that stuff is in you can increase the temperature a bit and bring it back to a low boil. After 10 or 15 minutes of this, I tend to like to dip a spoon into the pot and check the flavour. In most cases a few tablespoons of salt and a dash of pepper will be enough, and that’s typically how I like it since I enjoy the flavour of the chicken vegetables and don’t want to drown those out with spices. This is your chance to be creative!
If you haven’t added any potatoes and you’d like to add some carbs to the soup, I recommend adding whole wheat noodles to the mix. In the past I would typically cook the pasta in a separate pot, strain it, and then add it to the soup, but in recent years I have found it just as easy, and just as delicious, to put the noodles directly in the pot for the last 15 minutes of the cooking cycle. That keeps things simple and I also find that the noodles are more flavourful that way as well!
The result is a simple, super cleansing and delicious soup that didn’t cost very much and which will feed and please the entire family! You can take the chicken out, slice off the meat, and use that for packing lunches for the rest of the week. It’s pretty handy! And, while chicken soup can’t cure a cold, it will definitely make you feel a lot better if that’s the case!
That’s all for me for now! Hope you enjoy the recipe, and don’t hesitate to be in touch if you have any questions!
Yours truly,
Cindy