Soothe your ailments with this Chicken Soup

This winter, though unusually mild, is over compensating in the cold/flu department. This soup is sure to soothe what ails thee.

Homemade with love and fresh ingredients. Easy to digest with a plethora of unsuspected nutrients. Vitamin C and Iron rich parsley, Carrots chock full of  B vitamins, Vitamin A and Potassium. Celery has vitamin K, A more potassium and Phosphorus.

There are probably dozens, maybe thousands of chicken soup recipes out there and many are outright bland and boring, sporting rubberband like noodles.

If you are interested in a rich, deeply flavored Chicken Noodle Soup, this won't disappoint.

 Hubby even makes this. He takes great pride in the fact that he can whip up this comforting, delicious meal anytime I'm under the weather. We love it so much in fact that we eat it at least twice a month in the winter whether we need to or not.

Ingredients:

Package of chicken thighs with skin and bones

2-3 quarts of chicken stock

1/2 diced onion

1 diced stalk of celery

3 large carrots, sliced, cubed or coins

2 bay leaves

Fresh chopped parsley

Salt & Pepper

Garlic powder (fresh is best, but powder is better for this)

Olive oil

Kluski style egg noodles (please resist the wide flat egg noodles

try Kluski style that are opaque,  roughly shaped-homemade looking)

Drizzle olive oil in a Dutch oven or large pot. Salt, pepper and garlic the chicken. Add to preheated pot, skin side down. Cook for 3-4 minutes or until brown, turn and brown other side

{fat will render from the skin and the browning builds flavor}

Remove chicken to a bowl and remove all but 2 Tablespoons of fat from the pan. Add the mirepoix (onion, celery and carrot) cook until onion is soft and translucent. 

{Cooking the vegetables in the chicken fat adds huge flavor}

Add the chicken and any juices back to the pot, sprinkle with a teaspoon of garlic powder lower the heat to medium, cover and cook 20 minutes. 

The fond (browned bits) on the pot bottom is better than bullion every time!

 Add in the chicken broth and bay leaves. Turn heat up to med-high and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 20 more minutes. The browned meat will release rich flavor into the broth as well as gelatine from the bones which will add further depth to the soup.

Remove the chicken, add the noodles. Once the chicken is cool enough to handle, remove the meat, breaking into bite size pieces.

There is a lot of waste (in the bowl) $4 for 4 thighs makes a big pot, so I don't feel one bit guilty about tossing the less than glamorous thigh stuff.

You can see the meat is tender and juicy, kind of, not dry and chewy like so much boiled breast meat.

(Avoid breast meat, it easily over cooks and dries out in a soup, thigh meat is foolproof.

Of course you could use a whole chicken, adding in the breast meat just before serving)

Add back to soup. Boil gently for 5 minutes.

Add fresh chopped parsley, serve.

Find the Kluski noodles, avoid the bland rubbery wide egg noodles and no yolks.

Look at the texture of those noodles, rough and craggy captures the flavor of the broth like no other.

 Kluskies are tender, short and easy to maneuver on a spoon, even for toddlers.

Be patient, this recipe takes about 90 minutes start to finish, and worth every bit of it.

This is not a quick and easy soup, the labor of love pays off.

Enjoy!

Adapted years and years ago from The Best Recipe.

I have also created a Thai version with lemongrass, keffir lime leaves and galangal...coming soon.

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