Friend of Julie: Homemade Chicken Soup

I'm been writing this blog for two and a half years now and I can't believe that I have yet to add my homemade chicken soup recipe. I have many variations of this soup, but when I made this last week it was hands-down the best chicken soup I've ever made.

My homemade chicken soup.

I'm going to tell you how to make this recipe in the way my grandma would have told me one of her recipes. Instead of listing how much of each ingredient and each step, I'll tell you about the different ways I prepare the chicken and broth, and then give you veggie options.

How to Prepare the Chicken

There are a 2 methods I use for having cooked chicken to add to chicken broth:

1. Cook a package of boneless chicken breasts (2-4) in chicken broth and add veggies.
2. Pull the meat off the bones of a whole cooked chicken (store bought or one you cooked) and add chicken to the soup a few minutes before serving.

For the soup I made last week, I bought a whole cooked chicken. I cut off the breasts, which I used to make Chicken Parmesan that night. While my chicken Parmesan was baking, I removed the rest of the chicken from the bones, put that chicken in the refrigerator to add to the soup later, intentionally leaving some meat on the bones, and then I placed the bones in a crock pot.

I added a box of chicken broth and thin slices of fresh ginger root to the crock pot. Ground ginger will work also, I prefer fresh.

I set the crock pot on low around 10pm and I left it on until about 6am.

Whatever method you choose for obtaining cooked chicken, set it aside or refrigerate it to add after all the veggies are cooked (or a few minutes before serving). It's your call as to how you want the chicken cut. I prefer to shred my chicken, but you may cut it into cubes or slices.

Best Broth to Use

The best broth for any soup is one you made yourself, but I usually add boxed organic chicken broth.
Use any broth you have on hand, canned, boxed, fresh, or pull broth your homemade broth from the freezer. I haven't used bouillon cubes, but this is also an option.

After cooking, pull the chicken from the bones and cook the meaty bones in broth overnight, I pulled everything from the crock pot in the morning and separated the chicken, bones and the broth. The chicken was added to the other chicken I refrigerated the night before.

I refrigerated the broth in a separate container, because I finished making the soup when I got home from work that night. The broth gelled in the refrigerator, which allowed me to easily remove the hardened fat from the top before adding it to my soup.

Vegetables

The best veggies to add to this soup are the ones you like best. I added fresh carrots, onion, and garlic, and frozen corn.

Use your judgement on the amount of vegetables. Keep in mind you need equal or more chicken than veggies.

Finishing the Soup

1. Add a small amount of olive oil to a soup pan and caramelize 1 onion sliced or chopped (I like big pieces of onion). 
2. Add the chicken broth to the caramelized onion.
3. Add 2-4 carrots sliced.
4. Add thin slivers of fresh ginger (or ground - either is optional).
5. Cover the pan.
6. After the veggies are cooked, add frozen corn and the chicken.
7. Once the chicken and corn are piping hot the soup is ready serve.
8. Top the bowl of soup with fresh parsley or your favorite herb.

What's for lunch? My leftover homemade chicken soup of course!

January 27, 2015 Update

For the past three days I've been cooking chicken soup and I swear it's the best chicken soup I've ever made. I wanted to make sure I have my chicken soup recipe on this blog and sure enough here it is (above). On February 2, 2014 I also said I'd just made my best homemade soup ever.

Grandma would agree that today's chicken soup (photo below) is my best because it's an organic chicken and because after roasting the chicken I put the carcass and bones in a crock pot overnight to make the broth. Adding slices of fresh ginger root was brilliant too. This was well worth waiting three days!

Organic chicken soup

Ingredients in the soup above: whole organic chicken, 1 onion, 1/3 cup grated carrot, 1/3 cup peas, slices of fresh ginger, 3 minced garlic cloves, salt and pepper.

Directions

1. Roast whole organic chicken, cool and refrigerate chicken overnight.
2. The next day, remove the bones and carcass from the chicken.
3. Refrigerate chicken pieces.
4. Place chicken bones and carcass in a crock pot with 2 cups of water, cover and set on low for 10-12 hours.
5. Let broth cool, remove the bones and carcass, and refrigerate broth overnight.
6. The next day, skim the chicken fat off the broth.
7. Add sliced onion and garlic to the bottom of a big pan and saute until onions are soft. I added a small amount of the chicken fat from the stock to the onions so they wouldn't burn.
8. When the onions are soft, pour the broth into the pan, add carrots, ginger, salt and pepper.
9. Set burner to low for a few hours.
10. Turn burner up to medium, add peas and chicken slices.
11. Once the peas and chicken are hot, server and enjoy!

Photos by Theresa