My go-to "sick day" Chicken Noodle Soup RECIPE

...that cooks in just one hour!

This is the soup that I make when someone in my family starts having symptoms of a cold, etc… nourishing from the broth, but also tasty. If I happen to have my homemade bone broth on hand (recipe found: here) then I use that as the base for this soup. But, if not, and I don’t have the time to wait to make it, then I use store-bought— about 1/2 bone broth and 1/2 stock.

HERE ARE THE INGREDIENTS THAT I USE:

• 1.5 lb. boneless skinless chicken thighs (dark meat has more flavor)

• 6 celery stalks

• 5 large carrots

• 1 large sweet onion

• 1 lemon

• 1 small piece of ginger (about 2 inches)

• 7 garlic cloves

• about 100 oz. of chicken bone broth/stock (or about 14 cups of your chosen liquid)

• bundle of herbs— 10 sprigs thyme, 5 sprigs oregano, 2 sprigs rosemary

• 1 Parmesan rind (about a 1.5- by 3.5-inch piece)

• 2 bay leaves

• 1/4 cup coconut aminos

• 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

• 17 oz. spiral pasta noodles of choice

• salt/pepper

• 2 tbsp. olive oil (I use black truffle oil when I have it)

& HERE IS WHAT I DO:

To marinate: put garlic cloves and raw chicken in a bowl — add/mix 5 scrunches of black pepper, 3 pinches of sea salt & 1/4 cup of coconut aminos, set aside.

Place an 8 qt. stainless steel pot on stove, turn on between low and medium heat.

Peel carrots, chop in to bite-size slices. Chop celery and onion as well. Peel one very small piece of ginger.

Wash/rinse herbs. Tie in a soup sock.

Add 2 tbsp. of oil to warmed up pot. Turn heat to medium and wait 3-4 minutes for oil to heat up.

Using stainless steel tongs, place each chicken piece into pot and brown the first side for 2 minutes before then pouring the remainder of the marinade bowl with liquid and garlic cloves, into pot to then flip and brown other side of chicken.

Once both sides are browned (do not cook all the way through - just brown a few minutes each side), remove the chicken, set on top of a large cutting board, while leaving the garlic cloves in the pot.

Add onions and celery to the pot and immediately squeeze the lemon’s juice over top and stir well. Let them sauté for about 7-8 minutes while you chop up the half-cooked browned chicken in to bite size pieces.

Add the carrots and ginger piece to onion/celery mix in the pot, stir for about 2 minutes, then add 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce. Stir all around well.

Then add about 100 oz. total of chicken broth and chicken stock… When I don’t have my homemade broth available— I will use two of the below-pictured Bell & Evans chicken bone broth, and then two (24 oz. each) of my local grocery store’s brand of liquid chicken stock. I know most people just use water, but when not using bones and only the chicken meat (for a quicker chicken noodle soup), we don’t like it to be super bland (yes, even while sick).

Now add the chicken pieces back in to the pot. Then the herb sock, bay leaves, Parmesan cheese rind and 2 additional pinches of sea salt.

Bring up to very gentle boil, then immediately reduce heat to low and cover the pot to allow it to simmer for 45 minutes (make sure it’s not completely boiling or else too much liquid will evaporate).

After 45 minutes, then remove the cheese rind, garlic cloves, ginger piece and the herbs, before adding the dry pasta noodles.

Once noodles are added, bring the heat up to medium, let pasta cook through (usually about 10 minutes) before serving and eating once at a cool enough temperature.

Enjoy & be well!

x. Heather

P.S. Some people prefer to pre-cook their choice of noodles prior to adding them to the soup. I personally have found that when doing it that way, the noodles lose texture integrity faster and don’t maintain as left-overs (this recipe makes enough for our family for two days)… therefore, I prefer to cook the noodles from dry, directly in the soup—they have even more flavor that way too. If you feel like you need to add more liquid content because of loss from noodle absorption, keep that in mind beforehand and plan accordingly! ;)