Healing, Homemade Chicken Soup

Happy Sunday Friends! I hope that you are staying home and are healthy!!!

Chicken Soup has lots of healing properties. After all, isn't it known as "Jewish Penicillin" ?

Every country and nationality has their own version. This is the way my mother in law Rose used to make it. It is made with different veggies and chicken, but it it strained so that all you are serving is the broth with soup pasta, bits of chicken and a sprinkling of Romano or Parmesan cheese. Here is my recipe......

Most of the time when I make chicken soup I use a carcass from the roasted chicken I made the night before. If you didn’t make a roasted chicken, you can use a fresh roaster.

Ingredients:

I roasted chicken carcass preferably with lots of chicken meat left on it, or a fresh chicken roaster.

2 large yellow onions

3 large carrots, washed

3 celery stalks, washed

A good sized bunch of fresh Italian Parsley

5 Garlic Cloves

1/2 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

3 Tps. Salt

1 Tbs. Black Pepper

1 lb box of soup pasta. I like to use Acini di Pepe.

Dried Parsley Flakes

Grated Romano or Parmesan Cheese.

In an 8 Qt soup pot, add the olive oil. bring to medium high heat.

Roughly chop all the veggies.

Add veggies and salt and pepper to pot and sautee until they start to soften and the oil has absorbed the flavors.

Place the chicken on top and add water to 3/4 of the pot full.

Bring to a boil.

Reduce heat to medium, cover and cook for about 2 hours stirring occasionally.

At this point, some of the liquid will have evaporated. Add 8 more cups of water and stir.

Remove from heat and let it sit for about an hour for it to cool a bit.

Place a large metal strainer on top of another 8 Qt. pot. Strain the soup into that other pot.

Take the chicken meat and cut into small pieces or shred. Place in a small bowl and drizzle with Olive Oil. Cover and set aside.

At this point to can skim the fat with a metal fat skimmer or you can leave the fat in the soup. I like to leave to fat in it. This is one of the healing powers when you have a cold or the flu.

In another large pot, bring salted water to a boil. Add the pasta. Follow the box instructions.

When pasta is cooked, drain the water, put the pasta back in the same pot, and add the chicken broth until the broth covers the pasta over 2 or so inches. Crush some dried parsley flakes into the soup. Taste and add more salt to your liking.

Serve in a soup bowl, add chicken pieces and sprinkle with cheese.

You are going to have some leftover broth. You can freeze in plastic containers and use in other dishes, like Arroz con Pollo or to make more soup. Store leftover soup with pasta in the fridge. Sometimes the pasta will absorb the broth. Next time you reheat it, you can add more of your saved broth.

Enjoy!!