Chicken Soup From Scratch

It’s the season for cold and flu. Maybe you are like I am and hardly ever get sick or maybe you have already been sick this season. Chances are that you could be soon. The average person is said to get sick 3 times per year. One of my favorite things to give my family when they are sick is homemade soup. Even when you don’t have much of an appetite it seems like you can get some soup down. Its light, its healthy, its warm and soothes your throat and sinuses and re-hydrates you all at once.  When you aren’t feeling good the last thing you want to do is cook so why don’t you prepare ahead of time. This soup is easy to make and freezes fantastically. It even has both garlic and ginger which are said to have antiviral properties.

You will need:

1 whole organic chicken

1 yellow onion

2-3 good sized carrots

3 ribs of celery

1 leek

1/2 head of garlic hunk of fresh ginger about the size of your thumb

fresh basil

1 bay leaf

salt, pepper

frozen mixed vegetables

egg noodles or rice

you may also need a little extra chicken broth from a can

* I prefer to use all organic ingredients.

I use a pressure cooker for the first step, which is making the broth base, but if you do not have one you can use a large stock pot. It just takes a little longer to cook.

Start by washing all of your produce carefully and peeling the carrots and ginger. If you have never used a leek before, there is a little trick to washing them because they tend to have sand trapped between the layers. Cut the leek in half and fan the layers out under cold running water to rinse the sand out completely. The onion only needs the skin removed and to be cut into quarters. The garlic, don’t bother peeling it just crush it with a knife blade turned on its side to release the oils.  Lastly rinse the chicken inside and out with cold water.

You will put the whole chicken into your pressure cooker or stock pot. Then add all the vegetables, the onion, garlic, ginger, the bay leaf, a handful of basil and about a tablespoon of salt and grind some fresh pepper on top. Add enough water to cover everything completely.

* in this picture there is not enough water added. The chicken I had was rather large and more water would have exceeded the recommended capacity of my pressure cooker. This just means that I will need to add some commercial broth later.

If you are using a pressure cooker use the high pressure setting for 25 minutes and let the pressure release on its own. If you are cooking in a stock pot, simmer until the chicken is falling off of the bone. It may take up to a couple hours.

When it is done cooking you will remove the chicken using tongs and let it cool.   While waiting for the chicken to cool remove and discard the vegetables from the stock.  Then you will strain the broth that remains in the pot.

This is what I use to do it.

You will be left with your chicken stock base. I was left with 2 qts. but the amount you end up with depends on the size of your chicken and how much water your pot can hold. Once the stock is strained your chicken should be cooled enough to pull the it from the bone.

Now, I generally put the stock into the fridge and let it sit overnight. I have been in a hurry and skipped this step and the soup turns out fine. I just prefer to skim the fat off the top and refrigerating it first makes that step a cinch. If you do refrigerate the stock keep your chicken in a separate container in the fridge until needed.

You just use a slotted spoon and skim it right off the top. Then the stock is ready to use.

To make the soup you heat the stock to boiling in a large pot.

Then add 1/2- 1 bag of the frozen mixed vegetables. If you have 2 quarts, stick to half. If you ended up with more use the whole bag.

Then add all of the chicken that you pulled from the bone.

Once this all returns to boiling you can add your noodles or rice, whichever you prefer, and cook according to the package directions. If you are going to freeze this for later use do not add the rice or noodles. Your soup with be a gummy gelatinous mess and not too appetizing.  Just add those ingredients as you reheat your soup when you are ready to eat it. I freeze mine in those large zip-lock plastic containers with the screw on lid.

This time I did noodles but my family actually prefers rice. When I make it with rice I just dump the vegetables, chicken and rice all at once in the pressure cooker and cook it on high pressure for 8 minutes and it is ready to eat.