Chicken Soup Recipe

[happyhomemaker25]

With cold and flu season coming up I really want some tasty chicken soup recipes. I'll admit I want to be that girl at church that when anyone is sick I can kick up a yummy chicken soup to bring them and make their worlds right again.

I have one but it just seems... bland and I'm not a bad cook. I've tried everything to make it taste better. Help me out, Hive, whatcha got?? :D

[Spryte]

Bumping this to the top because I'm hoping for a yummy recipe too. :)

[Chris in VA]

Well, I think it IS a little bland, really.

 

I use an organic broth, but I've heard homemade is tastier, so that's one thing.

I add carrots (not baby--they are bland to me! lol), celery, 2 garlic cloves and onions that I've first sauteed a bit (sometimes in olive oil, sometimes in, yes, butter...).

 

After that cooks a bit, I add noodles, or rice. Homemade noodles are thicker and add more flavor, but I rarely make them.

 

I used already-cooked chicken leftover from roasting a whole chicken the day or two before. I season that roasted chicken (usually) with butter, garlic, salt, and pepper when I roast it.

 

I do add some more salt to the soup.

 

Not much help, eh?

[mandymom]

My absolute favorite chicken soup recipe: http://www.plantoeat.com/recipes/35275

 

I usually get a rotisserie chicken to use in this.

[Pippen]

Oh! Oh! Try mine! I first had this at a funeral meal and I headed back to the kitchen to track down the church lady who made it.

Be careful not to overcook this or the meat will be dry. The veggies tend to get mushy so if you want it "pretty" you may need to discard those used for flavoring and cook up some new ones in a small amount of broth.

I've been making this with the big Purdue roasters when they go on sale so we have plenty of meat. For ultimate in comfort, I take homemade applesauce and homemade rolls to go with this.

Homemade Chicken Soup

1 3-4 pound chicken, cut up

4 carrots, sliced

4 celery stalks with some leaves, sliced

1 small onion, diced (I use about 3 tablespoons)

2 teaspoons salt

½ teaspoon black pepper

½-1 teaspoon basil

1 clove garlic (optional)

water to cover (I usually use 8 cups)

Place all ingredients in a large kettle and cover with water. Cover kettle and cook on low until meat and veggies are tender. Remove chicken onto a platter. Drain liquid from veggies and save both. Debone chicken and cut into small chunks. Place broth, chicken meat, and veggies in separate containers and refrigerate overnight.

The next day skim the solidified fat off the broth. Reheat and put through a fine sieve if you want clear broth.

For chicken soup, add in desired amounts of meat, veggies, and precooked noodles or rice.

For cream sauce to serve Creamed Chicken & Biscuits:

¾ cup butter

¾ cup flour

¼ teaspoon black pepper

3 cups chicken stock

2 cups milk

chicken meat, cut up

Melt butter in saucepan. Combine flour and pepper and blend in gradually on medium heat. Stir until smooth and bubbly.

Remove from heat and stir in liquids. Return to heat and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil one minute or until thickened.

Gently stir in chicken meat and cook on low heat until heated through. Serve over biscuits.

[Photo Ninja]

I don't use a recipe, but here is what I do to make yummy soup.

 

I buy a roasted chicken from Costco. Remove all the meat and put into the refrigerator, then put everything else into a large pot (bones, skin). Fill the pot with water, then add a bunch of garlic. I probably toss in 1 - 2 bulbs of garlic, with the skin removed from all the cloves (yes, the entire bulb, not just 1 or 2 cloves.) It adds great flavor, but it won't taste garlicy. Really. Bring this to a boil, then decrease the heat, cover and simmer for 4 - 5 hours, adding more water as some evaporates. Then strain it and toss out all the chunky stuff.

 

Now you can either let it cool and put it into the refrigerator or freezer to use later, or make your soup. There is not much fat when making the broth from a roasted chicken because most the fat has already dripped off during the roasting process. This is good as is when someone has an upset tummy.

 

I use this chicken broth for lots of different kinds of soup and make it weekly during fall and winter.

 

For chicken soup, use homemade broth and heat it in a large pot. Add some poultry seasoning until it tastes the way you like it. Then I add whatever sounds good at the time for the purpose. Sometimes I add some cooked rice (or cook it in the broth, but be sure to have extra broth to add because the rice absorbs the broth), or sometimes I add diced potatoes (frozen diced potatoes hash browns works just fine if you dont' want to cut your own potatoes). Sometimes I add noodles. They all taste good. I add veggies, and again, it depends what sounds good.

 

If someone is sick with tummy troubles, I stick to rice or noodles, chicken and carrots. If we are just eating it for meals, I add a variety of veggies, like chopped cabbage, carrots, peas (add these last because they cook very quickly), zucchini (added last because they cook quickly), broccoli, green beans, and/or a can of diced tomatoes. Add some of the cooked chicken meat you removed earlier. Sometimes I will add a can of black beans, just because I can. Add what you like. You can't go too wrong here. It's soup. That's all there is to it.

 

Other combos:

 

Tortilla Soup: Mix broth, taco seasoning to taste, can of tomato paste, can or two of diced tomatoes, can or frozen corn, 1 can each of pinto beans and black beans, and some chicken meat or cooked hamburger or shredded beef. In each bowl, break up some tortilla chips, then add the soup. Top with some shredded cheddar cheese or a mix of cheddar and jack cheese. Super yummy on a cold day.

 

Minestrone: Broth, Italian seasoning to taste, tomato paste, diced tomatoes, zucchini, small pasta, and garbanzo beans or black beans (whichever you like best). You can also add some fresh spinach leaves just before serving and let them wilt a bit in the hot soup. Toss in some chicken meat or cooked beef or hamburger.

 

Broccoli Cheese: Use about half the usual amount of broth, and lots of broccoli. Cook the broccoli until it is tender, then puree it all in a blender (I use an immersion blender in the pot, but you can put it into a blender and puree it, the pour it back into the pot). Add some cream or half and half, get it all hot again, and add some cheddar cheese till it melts.

[RegularMom]

I just made some today, actually.

 

Here's RegularDad's grandmother's recipe:

 

1 small chicken

4 or 5 carrots

1 onion

2 or 3 celery stalks

1 parsnip

1 turnip

small handful of fresh parsley (stuffed into a steeping container)

salt

 

put chicken in pot, add water to cover

add 1 tablespoon salt

bring to a boil, skim off any foam

reduce heat, cover, simmer for an hour

peel and chop vegetables into large chunks

add to pot

add another Tablespoon of salt

sometimes I add a few bouillion cubes as well

simmer another hour

remove chicken and pick meat off bones to return to broth

 

(RegularDad takes the chicken out when it's cooked and keeps it warm in the oven, separate from the broth. It keeps the chicken from becoming too soft and disintegrating into the broth. I don't always bother with this when I make soup.)

 

in a separate pot, cook noodles of your preference

add them to the individual bowls at serving time, don't mix them into the broth. they'll just melt away into a mush

 

I serve this with homemade bread, and it's normal here to have to add salt to taste to your own chicken soup.

[happyhomemaker25]

Thanks everyone! I can't wait to try these.

[Liz CA]

I think I read that in order to get all the immune boosting nutrients you should boil the chicken carcass and make the broth from scratch because it the gelatin in the bones that gives the broth it's "raising from the dead" power.

[Amber in SJ]

How to make chicken soup

 

1. Roast at least two whole chickens in whatever way you like.

 

2. Roast 2-4 heads of garlic at the same time

 

3. Remove all the meat from the carcass. Eat 1/2 for dinner & save 1/2

 

4. Place carcass, skin & any drippings in crockpot along with:

1 yellow onion, with skin on, chopped in large chunks

2 unpeeled carrots, scrubbed & cut into chunks

3 stalks of celery, 2 large outer stalks & one inner stalk with leaves

2 bay leaves

10 peppercorns

cold water to cover

several sprigs of parsley

several springs of thyme

2 short glugs of apple cider vinegar (2-3 T maybe?)

Cook on low overnight. Strain out solids. Refrigerate until fat solidifies

at the top & broth has turned into what my kids call "chicken jell-o"

Remove & discard fat. Place into 1 qt containers & freeze if you are

not going to use in the next couple of days.

 

Recipe for Cold-Killer Soup, sometimes we call it confetti soup

 

2 carrots, peeled & diced

2 celery stalks, diced

1 yellow or white onion, diced (sometimes I use leeks)

2 cloves garlic minced

1 diced red or green bell pepper

2 quarts of chicken broth

2 cups diced cooked chicken

1 cup diced zucchini or yellow squash

2 cups shredded spinach

1 head of roasted garlic

olive oil

salt & pepper

egg noodles (homemade are best, but packaged are good too)

 

1. In a large dutch oven, heat olive oil over med. heat

2. Add carrots, onion, celery & peppers. Saute 5 minutes.

3. Add minced garlic & saute 2 minutes longer.

4. Add chicken broth, reserving 1/2 cup.

5. Let soup simmer for a few minutes while you squeeze roasted garlic out of the cloves & puree with reserved chicken broth

6. Add garlic/ broth puree to soup along with cooked chicken

7. Bring to a boil

8. If using packaged noodles add here

9. Reduce heat & simmer 10 minutes

10. Add zucchini & fresh noodles if using here, simmer 5 minutes

11. Remove from heat & stir in spinach.

12. Taste broth & adjust seasonings.

 

If congestion is the issue Dh will have his with a squeeze of siracha sauce (I don't know how to spell it. The chili sauce with the rooster on the front)

 

Anytime we have chicken or turkey I make broth, so it is always in the freezer. This soup can also be frozen before you put in the chicken & noodles, thawed, reheated to that point & then carry on.

 

We love soup at our house.

 

Amber in SJ

[goldberry]

I confess I don't use homemade broth. I like mine a little spicy so I add cajun seasoning. The spice is good for stuffy nose. I use red and yellow pepper? Funny I didn't see that on too many other recipes.

 

I saute the vegis in a bit of olive oil ahead of time.

 

Chicken Soup

2-3 carrots

2-3 spoons minced garlic

1 red, 1 yellow pepper

1 c onions

3 chicken breasts

3 boxes broth

Pepper

Italian seasoning

Cajun seasonin

[Mergath]

In my humble opinion, the secret to great chicken noodle soup is to add dill. Makes it taste amazing.

[Oops, duplicate account :/]

Seriously, ppl rave about my chicken soup! I have a large stock pot and cook at LEAST 4 fryers at a time (every week!), but here's a crockpot version. Cook chicken in 1-2 quarts water. When the meat is falling off the bone, debone the chicken. Put the cartilage and fat back in the crockpot. Put the bones in a gallon size ziplock bag and crush them (exposing the marrow) with a hammer on a cutting board. Put crushed bones back in the crockpot. Add lots of sea salt and enough water to make a gallon of water total in the crockpot. Cook the broth 24 hours. Strain and make soup! This broth will be the most amazingly tasting and nourishing ever! :001_smile: I do not add any veggies to the broth, but if you really want to just take 1 quart water and quartered veggies (onion, carrots, celery) and blend in the blender. This becomes the additional liquid you add after the chicken has been deboned. Blend leftover fat, cartilage, bones in the blender with water and feed to the pets. ;):D

Edited November 17, 2011 by JENinOR

[Oops, duplicate account :/]

In my humble opinion, the secret to great chicken noodle soup is to add dill. Makes it taste amazing.

 

I must try this. Thanks!

[Swirl]

I think one of the keys to good chicken soup is homemade noodles.

[Shawna in Texas]

i think my soup is pretty good (as does DH, which is saying something considering he doesn't usually think soup can be a meal) and it's very simple since I usually only make it when I'm sick, or there's a cold-front and I'm baking a lot and need a simple dinner. I'd use homemade stock, but I never have any in the freezer when I want to make this. Anyway:

 

small sweet onion

butter

carton of chicken stock

leftover rotisserie (or any chicken really)

salt

lemongrass (I use the spice form)

skinny egg noodles

 

I caramelize the onion in butter after slicing into skinny rings. This takes for.ev.er. But they are so good that I could eat them on ice cream. After that, throw the chicken, onions, and stock in a big pot, double the recipe if you want and bring it to a boil (I'm impatient at this point and usually don't wait for it to boil), and put in the noodles. Salt to taste and I add several large pinches of lemongrass. It may be about a tsp's worth, but I can usually tell by how much I see floating in there and by taste. Honestly though, it's the onion and the lemongrass that gives it such great flavor. I'm sure you could add whatever else you wanted to this and it would still be good as long as you kept in those two things.

[MsAlimar]

I highly recommend this soup. It's called Virus Killing Soup. My daughter requested it last week when her cold first started. I only used 15 large cloves of garlic and we all decided that I needed to use at least 20 large cloves of garlic. I cut the cayenne down to 1/4 teaspoon. I also add in lots of onions, celery, carrots and a leek to the first step. Then I toss those mushy vegetables after the broth is done.

 

I add in new vegetables and noodles after dividing the broth in half. Sometimes I make dumplings instead of adding noodles.

 

There is usually enough to freeze half and still serve us for two days. I freeze the broth without the new vegetables or the noodles.

[kewb]

My families favorite:

1 soup chicken (or a roaster) cut up

1 large onion (or a leek)

3 - 6 cloves of garlic or more if you like a lot of garlic. Sometimes, I throw the whole head in.

1 turnip

1 parsnip

2-3 carrots

2-3 stalks of celery (tops included)

1 tbs apple cider vinegar

Big bunch of dill

salt and pepper to taste

 

Throw everything in the pot, and some of the dill, and cover with water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 3 -4 hours or longer. Add more dill every hour or so. The longer it simmers the better it is. When you are done simmering strain the soup. When the veggies and chicken cool, pull the meat off the bones. Discard the veggies and bones.

 

When ready to serve, heat up with some of the chicken pieces, a chopped carrot, matzoh balls, and fine egg noodles.