Chicken Soup

About as often as I make the stuffed green peppers, I make a chicken soup. So, maybe three or four times a month. People have such a fear of chicken soup from scratch, but I find it easier than opening a can and picking out the gross hunks of meat.

Here's my super, simple, quick version. It makes a huge pot, is cheap, fills you up, you have tons of leftovers, and you can freeze for a meal down the road.

One large onion, two large potatoes (sometimes I omit potatoes), 4 or 5 carrots, 4 or 5 stalks of celery. Chop all of these up and throw them in the bottom of a very large pot. I then add vegetable stock (10-12 cups), a dash of pepper, and one or two bay leaves. I bring this up to temperature and let it hang out for a little while until the vegetables are tender.

This usually takes twenty minutes or so, which gives me time for the chicken. I cheat and buy one of those rotissioure ones from the deli. They're usually $6.99 for the whole chicken, but sometimes they're on sale for $4.99 or $5.99. I buy either the rosemary one or a low sodium one, whichever is available. I avoid the spicey one and there's also a barbeque one.

I basically just pick the entire chicken to the bone (on the right). It gives me 4 or 5 cups of cooked chicken (on the left), depending on the size of the chicken and if I snuck any when I got home from the store. Sometimes it just smells so yummy I need to grab off a drumstick or hunk of the breast!


Once the vegetables are almost tender, I throw in a couple of handfuls of orzo, or other small pasta and let that cook about halfway. I then throw in the chicken and let everything sit in the pot to finish or come up to temperature for another 10 to 15 minutes. Then -- it's done!

Super, spaced out me forgot to take any pictures further than that step. I have no idea why. I also wrote this all up last night and just hit save, instead of post. I blame it on this flu/cold I've had for a week and can't shake. I might have to suck it up and go to the doctor, but I'm avoiding that... long waiting lines with tremendous bills isn't my idea of fun.