Homemade chicken soup is a family cure-all. It’s an excellent meal to take to a postpartum mom, a sick friend, someone newly home from surgery or anyone needing a warm bowl of nutrition to remind them of how loved they are.
1 5lb chicken
1 large onion, chopped
3 large carrots, chopped
3 cloves garlic, whole
salt and pepper to taste
2 celery stalks, chopped
Additional herbs are parsley, thyme, rosemary (beware that parsley should not be consumed when breastfeeding)
Additional ingredients are frozen English peas, baby lima beans or green beans
Clean whole chicken, remove gizzard and heart if in the cavity. Make sure to clean cavity well and remove any brown bits or blood. Place whole chicken in large stock pot. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Let boil for 10-15 minutes. Add the whole onion, carrots and celery then turn the heat down to medium and let simmer for about 45 minutes. Remove chicken and check temperature. If your stove cooks fast you may want to check temperature after 30 minutes. You can pull the whole chicken out and place on a cutting board. Check that the temperature in the fattest part of the bird holds 165 for 10 seconds.
Pull the vegetables out at this point and chop into smaller pieces. Return to pot. If you like your vegetables to be pretty crisp you can wait to add them to the pot at this point just chop them smaller.
Process chicken, pull meat from carcass and shred or chop. Return to pot. Can add any additional frozen veggies here. Bring all ingredients to a boil and then let simmer on low for additional 30 minutes.
I like to cook rice or noodles separately and add to soup when served so that it doesn’t get too mushy. My daughter loves egg noodles.
