Curing what ails you: chicken soup for the MOUTH

I have a true confession to make. I am 36 years old, and until just a couple weeks ago, I’d never made chicken soup from scratch. I can see now that was a huge mistake. By the time this recipe was done, it smelled so amazing I was ready to marry MYSELF. So use with caution.

You will need:

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

4 carrots, peeled, halved, and cut in quarter-inch half-moons

1 bulb celery, trimmed and cut in quarter-inch slices

1 small onion, diced very fine OR 3 Tbsp dried shallots (no, I haven’t been to the store yet so I am still improvising with dried shallots)

4 cloves minced garlic

fresh parsley, about a half-bunch, roughly chopped

4 c chicken stock (per usual, low sodium organic preferred)

6 c water

4 Tbsp olive oil

half a package of egg noodles

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Start off with medium heat; you want to cook the chicken breasts but not to brown them too much. Add 2 Tbsp of the olive oil to your stockpot. Give it a couple minutes to heat up but don’t leave it so long it smokes (olive oil has a very low smoking temperature, as I have personally experienced) and add the chicken breasts. You may need to trim them just a bit to remove any residual skin or fat. Salt and pepper them and turn them occasionally until cooked through, probably 10 minutes or so? While they’re cooking, peel and cut the carrots and chop the celery. When the chicken cooked through –  no pink flesh AT ALL – take the breasts out and let them rest on a plate. Add the remaining olive oil, shallots, carrots, celery and some salt and pepper to the pan and let cook for 5-10 minutes. This will begin to smell amazing. Add the water, chicken stock, and parsley, and carefully scrape the bottom of the pan with a flat edged wooden tool to deglaze all the good stuff from when you cooked the chicken breasts.

Bring this to a boil, and while that’s happening, pull the chicken breast meat (which should have cooled enough to handle) into pieces – remember, this is soup so you don’t want big chunks. Add the chicken to the pot.  When it’s come to a boil, take back down to a simmer and add the noodles. Taste and season with salt and pepper as desired. Cook 15-20 min until the noodles are done.

Since this is a first attempt, I will update on how this handles freezing at some point in future, but I expect it should do so beautifully.

Your house smells amazing. You now have an incredibly hearty and delicious chicken soup that is just waiting to cure everything that ails you. Who needs chicken soup for the soul [your teenager, the single mom, librarians, people who don’t like Tuesdays, former clowns, sports lovers … ] when you can make your own amazing chicken soup for your MOUTH?! Soooo good.