Magically Healing Chicken Soup
I am the biggest baby when I get sick. I vacillate from my bed to the sofa and back again when I feel like I’ve been vertical too long.
When I’m sick, other than cold meds and tissues, I require three things. My illness rider is as follows:
OJ -preferably with pulp because it makes me feel more like it actually came from oranges
Ginger tea with lemon and honey, either from a box or just water boiled with as much ginger root as I can stand
My homemade chicken soup
This soup is so easy to make, even when I feel like I’ll never feel better again I can still muster up the energy to make a pot of it and future me is so grateful for it because it lasts for days.
One need not be sick to make this soup, often when the weather turns crisp or downright frigid I’ll make a pot of this to have on hand for a quick nourishing meal that requires no more effort than a few minutes in the microwave.
Here’s what you’ll need to make it:
1 pound of boneless skinless chicken thighs (about 4 to 5)
1 small yellow onion or half of a medium sized one, chopped
3 stalks of celery, chopped
2-3 carrots or baby carrots that are roughly equal to the amount of celery
3 teaspoons of salt (or to taste)
1/2 teaspoon of black pepper
1 tablespoon of dried parsley or 1/4 cup of fresh (optional) I’m
1/3-1/2 lb of noodles, I like extra wide egg noodles or the tricolor rotinis
Now cue up the Montell Jordan, because “This is How We Do It”
Get a soup pot and fill it with water. I use my dutch oven.
Put in chicken thighs and start boiling them.
In your food chopper, chop about half a medium onion. Chop it up til it’s just about liquefied, you can add a little water if you need. If you don’t have a food chopper I’m sorry! Finely hand chopping also works, I’d just cry my face off. Add that to you boiling chicken thighs.
Chop by hand 3 stalks of celery, leaves too. Try to get the celery with leaves cause it’s nice flavor, but if it doesn’t have leaves it’s not the end of the world.
Then also chop about an equal amount of carrots. (You can hand chop or sometimes I just use baby carrots and give them a couple quick pulses in the food chopper. But just a couple quick ones because you want chunks, not shredded carrots)
Put the veggies in your boiling pot.
Let it boil for a while til the chicken is done and veggies are soft. Can go a little longer if you want more flavor but keep your pot covered so you don’t have it evaporate on you.
When the chicken is done take it out and put it on a plate in the fridge or freezer depending on how quickly you want it to cool.
While the chicken is cooling add about half of a pound of pasta to your boiling soup. I use wide egg noodles but you could also use rotini or 1/2 cup of rice. Make sure not to over cook the pasta cause you’ll reheat it when you want leftovers.
Also add about 3 teaspoons of salt and maybe 1/2 teaspoon of pepper. You can always add more later.
Tear up the chicken and put it in the soup.
Stir it up and if you wanna be fancy throw in a tablespoon of dried parsley or fresh if you’re prepared like that and stir. If you don’t add the parsley it’s not the end of the world, doesn’t change the flavor dramatically. Honestly, I just put it in because it looks pretty.
Now serve yourself a bowl of soup and be amazed at the deliciousness you just made.
