Is there anything better than homemade chicken soup when you aren’t feeling well?
Recently when I wasn’t feeling well, I was dying for a cup of hot, homemade chicken soup, but not just any homemade soup. I wanted MY homemade chicken soup. The problem was that I felt too awful to make it for myself.
I decided to plan ahead to give myself the gift of soup for some time in the future when, for whatever reason, I need it but am not able to make it for myself. Now that I’ve done it, it feels comforting just knowing that it is there in the freezer, and all I have to do is add the pasta (ditalini or pastina!) or rice to it.
Here’s my recipe:
Crock Pot Chicken (or Turkey) Soup*
Ingredients and method:
2 quarts of chicken or turkey stock or broth, or 1 quart of each, salt and pepper to taste, approximately 2 tablespoons of dried parsley (I never measure this; I just dump it in, so I’m guessing here), 2 tablespoons of tomato paste (or if you have some leftover gravy in the fridge, use that), a 1 to 2 inch piece of a rind from a block of parmesan cheese (or the cheese itself if you used up all the rind already–I keep some in the freezer for this purpose), several peeled carrots, cut into 1/3’s or 1/4’s chunks, an onion (I just take off the outer layer and cut off the ends, cut it in half and throw it in–my husband doesn’t like onions so I need to be able to find it and take it out at the end), 2 whole garlic cloves, 1 or 2 bay leaves (fish them out at the end, as well as the garlic, and the aforementioned onion if your family doesn’t like it). If I have celery, I use just the leaves, maybe a handful, and take these out at the end as well. I add salt and pepper to taste and a big handful of dried parsley.
[NOTE: The tomato paste and the parmesan rind are both tricks that I learned from my foremothers].
For the meat, you can use 2 chicken breasts or 4 chicken thighs (or a mix of both), or a leftover rotisserie chicken carcass or turkey carcass–just make sure it will fit into your crock pot! If you use boneless, skinless meat, it will shorten the time you need to process it all and get it on the table. If you use meat with the skin and the bones, you’ll need to strain out and separate out the solids and put that stock in the fridge overnight so you can skin the fat off the next day. Then you can add the carrots and the meat back in.
After everything is in the crock pot, the time will vary. You can do it on high for a few hours or low for a few more hours than that. I usually put it on low all day, strain out the solids in the evening and put them in a separate container from the broth overnight. The next morning, I skim the broth and then add back in the solids.
I boil the pasta separately and add it later after the soup is done. I undercook it by 1 to 2 minutes from what the package suggests. This should keep it from getting mushy in the soup. I put the pasta into the bowl and then ladle the soup over it. If I know we’ll be eating it all in one sitting, then I put the pasta right into the pot.
Now that I’ve typed this whole recipe out, I’m thinking that no one will ever make it because it sounds like so much work!! I am also sure I’ve left out something because I make this from memory. Feel free to ask me anything about this if it doesn’t make sense and you want to make it yourself.
BUON APPETITO!
*Disclaimer: I am a writer, but not necessarily a recipe writer, so I did my best with this.
Karen Creamer
