The Best Chicken Soup

Everyone thinks their chicken soup recipe is the best, I know. Let's face it - ALL chicken soup is amazing and it's hard to find a bad one when made from scratch. This one is delicious and I have to say I would rather eat my own chicken soup than any other so I'm sticking with the title The Best Chicken Soup.

One thing to note, this is a very thyme forward soup - if you don't love thyme you can sub the stock herb with parsley and omit it from cooking it when softening the vegetables.

INgredients


Stock:

  • 2-3 carrots, chunk chopped
  • 2-3 celery stalks, chunk chop
  • 2 onions quartered 
  • 1 head of garlic halved
  • Whole organic chicken
  • 12 cups of cold water (enough to cover chicken)
  • A half a bunch fresh thyme put in cheese cloth wrap and dropped in pot
  • 2 bay leaves
  • About a tablespoon of peppercorns
  • About a tablespoon of Better than Bouillon Chicken 


Soup:

  • 2 carrots, nicely sliced
  • 1/2 purple onion, thin slice, then chop
  • 1-2 stalks of celery, thin sliced
  • 2 twigs thyme leaves
  • olive oil
  • Acini de Pepe pasta, or small pasta of choice

1.

Salt and pepper inside and outside of chicken. Place chicken and veggies in a deep pot and add water until chicken is covered. Bring to a slow boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 2 hours. Towards the end I’ll taste, add salt or more better than bullion if it needs it. 

2.

After stock is done I strain the liquid gold into a new pot. With forks or gloved hands, take the meat off chicken bones. In a clean pot, coat bottom with olive oil and on medium low heat add thinly sliced soup vegetables. Add salt and thyme & cook about 7-10 minutes or until nicely softened. 

3.

Meanwhile, cook pasta until al dente.

Meanwhile, cook pasta. Add broth to new vegetable pot, taste and add a little more salt if needed. Add chicken. Spoon some pasta in bowl and top with soup. 

I keep my pasta separate from my broth so it doesn't soak it all up. It will give you more leftovers!