Clean Out the Refrigerator, It's Time for Chicken Soup
My Favorite Chicken Soup Recipe
It's chicken soup time and time to that means it's time to clean out the refrigerator. Soup is one of the most flexible recipes to make, and takes on the taste and flavor of the whatever ingredients you find in the refrigerator and the cupboard.
All the cook has to do is have the culinary knowledge to blend the ingredients together to make a chicken noodle soup that will have your family clamoring for the recipe.
Homemade chicken soup is meant to never made the same way twice. It may come close, the base soup is usually the same, but every good cook can't resist adding a little of this and a little of that to create the flavor of the day. Chicken soup is an opportunity to use those tiny portions of frozen vegetables left in the bottom of the bag, I know you have them, the 1/2 cup of corn, peas, okra, green beans, mixed vegetables.
As you can see from the photo I even put in two different kinds of noodles, Didn't have enough of one, so I used both. Soup is very forgiving, in fact soup welcomes different ingredients and creativity.
Ingredients
- 4 -5 lbs chicken (whole or pieces)
- 1 onion
- 1 cup celery
- 4 cups assorted vegetables
- (whatever is in your refrigerator)
- Seasoning:
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt (can use seasoning salt)
- 3 Tablespoons dried parsley
- 2 teaspoons poultry seasoning (or 1/2 tsp each rosemary, thyme, and sage)
- 2 -3 cups dried noodles
Alternative Ingredients
Other optional ingredients include:
- Rice (instead of noodles)
- Barley (instead of noodles)
- 1/2 -1 cup spaghetti sauce at the bottom of the jar (gives an Italian spicy flavor)
- 1-2 cups stewed tomatoes
- Cubed potatoes
Don't let the total time scare you, for two of those three hours the soup is simmering all by itself, and needs no tending. The last hour it's tempting your taste buds.
Handy vegetable Chopper and Slicer
Instructions
- Place the chicken, or pieces in a large stock pot and cover with water, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for approximately one hour or until the chicken is falling off the bone when pressed with a large spoon.
- Remove the chicken pieces from the stock, place in a bowl and put in refrigerator to cool.
- Gather vegetables from refrigerator or freezer, this is the fun and creative part (also allows you to clean out the fridge)
- Chop any whole vegetables such as onions, carrots and celery into 1/8" pieces and put aside.
- Now is the chance to use the partially used bags of vegetables in the freezer. You know the ones, 1/2 cup of peas left, 1/2 cup corn, it can all be added to the soup.
- Remove the chicken from the refrigerator, it should be cooled by now, remove the meat from the bones, cut into small pieces and add it back to the liquid.
- Add the frozen vegetables and raw veggies to the chicken
- Add the spices, and bring soup to a boil, reduce and simmer for one hour
- Add noodles and simmer for approximately 30 more minutes.
- Water can be added if you got carried away with adding vegetables and "other good stuff"