Chicken Soup for the Sick and Lazy

I’m sick again, boo, no fun. I guess it’s expected from the daily bus travel and onslaught of stagnant, recirculated office air. Nevertheless, this time around, I decided to kick the cold in the pants and put in minimal effort to make myself homemade chicken soup.

The following is a favorite recipe of mine, that I've adapted for laziness from Cuisine at Home's Chicken Pot Pie Recipe. Anything in (brackets) was how I adapted or estimated, since measuring things when you’re sick is miserable. And that is the best thing about soup. You can pretty much get away with anything you want and it still tastes delicious.

-- The following estimates were from the original recipe --

Estimated servings: 8 cups

Estimated calories per serving: 254

Estimated nutritional facts: 12g total fat; 429mg sodium; 20g carb; 2g fiber

INGREDIENTS:

START:

3 tbsp -- olive oil OR 4 tbsp -- Unsalted Butter

DICE & SWEAT:

1 cup -- Onion (3/4-1)

½ cup -- Carrot (2 large)

1 cup -- Celery (3-4 stocks)

2 tsp -- Garlic (2-3 cloves)

1 cup -- Button Mushrooms (4-5)

1 ½ cups -- Red Potatoes (3 medium – not skinned)

---

¼ cup -- flour (sprinkle, sprinkle, sprinkle, sprinkle)

DEGLAZE:

Sherry (if you don’t have it, use some dry wine or bypass)

5 cups -- Chicken broth. I used low sodium and just added salt to taste. (5 cups basically means - 1 full carton and then 1 cup from another carton – hassle. To fix this, always have bouillon handy and make a cup of that for your 5th cup of chicken broth. 1 tsp bouillon to 1 cup hot water and dissolve.)

2 cups -- Cooked chicken or 1 Roasted Chicken (just the meat obviously. If you use all the meat you may need to add more broth. If you dont, then save the rest for a mid day salad.)

2 tbsp -- chopped fresh thyme (I always forget the fresh stuff, so dried works as well)

½ tsp -- kosher salt (pinch, pinch, pinch)

¼ tsp -- black pepper (pinch, pinch)

Ground nutmeg (pinch)

1 -- Bay leaf

FINALLY – if you want to:

½ cup -- frozen corn kernels

½ cup -- frozen peas

2 tbsp -- chopped fresh parsley (recommended)

2 tsp -- fresh lemon juice (recommended)

Salt and pepper to taste (recommended)

THE RECIPE:

START – DICE and SWEAT:

Set pot on stove to medium-high heat.

Add butter or olive oil. I usually just use olive oil.

Toss in DICED items – except the potatoes. Sweat for about 3-4 minutes.

Toss in Potatoes – sweat 3-4 more minutes. Remember to test the vegis to make sure they’re not too soft.

Stir in flour – cook 1-2 minutes. (You can skip this is you want it to be less pie like.)

CONTINUE with DEGLAZING:

Deglaze with sherry/or wine. (You can skip this if you skipped the flour)

Stir in broth, chicken and the rest of the DEGLAZE herbs and spices.

Bring to a boil and reduce heat to medium-low.

Simmer until thickened. About 10-15.

(If you’re single and sick like me, put your face over the steam and breathe up that garlic. If you do this in front of company, don’t expect them to eat what you serve. Their loss!)

ADD the FINALLIES:

Toss in corn, peas, parsley and lemon juice. (If you’d like. If you don’t want to or don’t have them handy, don’t worry, it will still be delicious.)

Serve soup and season per taste with salt and pepper.

Enjoy!

With love and the sniffles,

the guilty girls

#food