We seem to be in the home stretch of Winter right? Wrong. Well, for those of you in the southern and coastal states, sure. Can you feel the jealousy rolling off of me? I will think of you when I am shoveling snow in May. There is one good thing about the cold: it gives me an excuse to make lots of hot soups. I don’t really need an excuse, but making soup in Summer when it is 95 degrees out makes little sense and is even rather torturous. when I was little and not feeling well, my mother would make me the Lipton’s soup from those powdery pouches. As an adult, I find it just as easy to make a giant pot of sort-of homemade chicken soup, so we go with that route on Monday night during the cold months. No joke, Kinn eats like 14 bowls every Monday. It is hilarious to watch a skinny dude eat until his stomach hurts, especially when it is something like chicken soup.
Semi-Homemade & Obviously Awesome Chicken Noodle Soup
For a huge pot:
- 4 tablespoons dried minced onions
- 2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 3 tablespoons sea salt
- 4 large chicken breasts (or 8 chicken tenderloins)
- 6 large carrots
- 1 full head of celery
- 1 cup frozen peas
- About 5 liters water
- spaghetti broken up into half inch sections
Slice your carrots thinly (1/8 inch) and add to large soup/stock pot with thinly sliced celery. Add two liters of water, garlic, and onion. Cover pot and simmer on medium for an hour.
While the soup starter is simmering, place your chicken breast tenderloin in a large frying pan. Lightly cook chicken for about four minutes on each side on medium heat. If you have any lemon pepper, sprinkle a little on the chicken while it is cooking. Remove chicken from heat. It should be slightly undercooked. Cut the chicken up into bite sized chunks.
When the hour of covered simmering is finished, the carrots and celery should be soft. Add the rest of your water, salt, chicken, and thyme to the pot. Turn up the heat to bring it up to a light boil. Break up your spaghetti into one inch sections.
Once it is boiling, add the noodles and give it a good stir. As soon as noodles are mostly cooked 9around 10 minutes), turn heat down to low and add frozen peas. The peas should cool it down enough to keep the noodles from continuing to cook. Taste test to see if it needs more salt. (You might need to add more water if too much boiled away)
Your soup is ready! Easier than fully homemade from scratch soup, but several steps above the canned stuff. During the winter months, we make a pot of this soup once per week. It makes enough for two nights of hot soup when the weather is too freezing to consider anything else. I love making it when we are feeling dehydrated and sick from the common cold.
For a richer broth, use homemade bone broth in place of half the water. If you save a carcass from a previous roaster bird, it is pretty easy to make your own chicken bone broth.