Chicken Soup – it is not just for when you are sick!

For some reason, Luke loves Chicken Noodle Soup, especially the organic kind sold in a box from Whole Foods.  Since we were home bound the first real snow day off from school, we made our own.  I usually have all the ingredients for a basic chicken soup and I bet you do too!  I have frozen chicken, carrots, onions, celery and some form of noodles at all times. This makes it easy to just throw some things in a pot and see how it comes out!

First, I put 2 boxes of Organic Chicken Broth (or water if you don’t have any broth) in my dutch oven and boiled my frozen chicken breasts. While waiting, I cut up 2 carrots, a bunch of celery with the greens, a red pepper and one sweet onion. When the chicken seemed cooked, I pulled it out and shredded it.

I added everything back into the stock with some salt, pepper and a dash of cayenne!

I made some noodles, al dente is best and I happened to have some fresh parsley so I chopped that up too… I keep my noodles separate as they don’t get mushy in the soup, especially when I know I am going to have leftovers or I am forcing some on my gluten free neighbor.  Both of which happened!  

Now, that is it… If you want to be decadent, you could add some cream to the soup.  I would do this after it has reached the consistency that you want it to have. You will have to play with the cream amount to make it come out the way you would prefer.  I almost never have cream in the house unless it is near the holidays. Trader Joe’s sells some in a box around the holidays that is decent and will whip into whipped cream.  The other option, would be to add some cream of chicken soup.  I have found a nice organic brand in a box that I use sometimes but this soup is so light and flavorful, I didn’t want to mess it up.

I hope you enjoy it and make it for a sick friend when in need.  It is easy, quick, nutritious and always welcome.