Chicken Soup

Chicken Soup

This past week I found myself really sick and all I wanted was some chicken noodle soup, but I am really not a fan of soup in a can. I love chicken soup and I make it all the time. Sometimes I add noodles, dumplings, or just eat it as is.

Chicken Soup

2 large chicken breast

3-4 celery stalks with leafy tops

1 large onion

1 cup shredded carrots

1 large potato or 2 smaller ones

1-2 bay leaves

1 tsp poultry seasoning

salt and pepper

olive oil

 5 tsp chicken base powder

8 cups water

Start by dicing the onion and celery and saute them in olive oil in a large stock pot. After about a minute throw in the carrots and  diced potato. (you can peel the potato or not its up to you, I did in this recipe but often I don't)   Next add the salt, pepper, poultry seasoning, and bay leaves. continue cooking for a few more minutes until the onion and celery begin to soften.

 

 I happen to have frozen boneless skinless chicken breast but if you have chicken breast on the bone its best. I then threw in the frozen chicken and added 8 cups of water and about 4-5 teaspoons of chicken base powder. If you would rather use chicken broth then do it I just never have it on hand. If using the powder just know it is very salty and don't add too much. You can always add more but you cant take it back!

 

Turn it on high and bring it to a boil, then turn down to med/low and cover it with a lid and walk away for about 45 min or until the chicken is tender. Once the chicken is tender I like to shred it with two forks. At this point your soup is done, but you want to taste it for seasonings. I usually end up adding more salt and pepper at this point or more chicken base powder. If you would like to add noodles you can do it now and cook until the noodles are done. I personally didn't want to add noodles to all of the soup so I cooked up some noodles separately and added it to my own bowl.

I then Pile on the soup on top of the noodles!!! My little guy enjoyed the soup with me while we were both not feeling great :)

tips for this recipe:

You can customize this soup to your liking. If you want it to be more brothy and less stew like add more water/broth. If you would like it to be a creamery soup add a can or two of cream of chicken soup to this. You can also throw in any other veggies you like but this is my favorite probably because its so basic. If you don't want noodles you can make homemade dumplings or simply cut up Pillsbury biscuits and cook them the last ten min or so. They are the easiest dumplings ever and they taste great!