Fighting winter colds: Chicken soup

It’s that time of year. Colds, sickness, sneezing…the whole bit seems to turn our worlds upside down with yucky crud. We’ve tasted our bit of winter flu over Christmas where our whole family battled through a 24 hour bug. But that’s a first for us. Thankfully we stay pretty healthy throughout the winters, maybe due to strong immune systems? I’m actually not very adamant or good about fighting germs…maybe that’s how our immune systems grew strong? Maybe this will come back to bite us, but for now we’re going with what works for us.

 

But when the sick does come, we’ll be ready with this amazing chicken noodle soup. While we were in the middle of remodeling our kitchen I tried to embrace our crock pot more and in doing so this amazing soup was born. It’s traditional chicken noodle, but with inexpensive and good for you, organic ingredients, and the flavor is spot on. Because I use bone in chicken you get so much more flavor than using chicken without the bones. Plus there is added nutrition in the bones that you can take advantage of as well.

After years of trying to perfect my chicken noodle and being frustrated with the broth and attention to detail this recipe produces perfect results with little attention to detail. I’m so over bland boneless skinless chicken breasts and so this recipe uses my favorite new ingredient, organic free range chicken legs from Trader Joes. I can usually find a pound+ package for $3 or under which to me is the deal of the century. It’s true that using better ingredients will produce a better product and that’s what happens here.

Try this for combating your next cold…or just any day that chicken soup sounds delicious!

 

Slow Cooker Chicken Soup

1 - pkg of Trader Joe’s Organic chicken legs (or 1 lb. of other chicken)

1 - carton of Trader Joe’s Organic chicken broth or 4-5 C of chicken stock

1 - yellow onion diced

1 to 2C total – diced carrots and celery

1/4 teas. – thyme

salt and pepper

cooked pasta of choice (tiny stars or egg noodles are perfect)

 

1. Place chicken and diced onion in slow cooker. sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Cover with broth. turn on low and cook for 2 – 2 1/2 hours

2. after 2 hours or so add in the diced carrots and celery and add the thyme. Cook for an additional hour.

3. After an hour or so remove the chicken…remove chicken from the bones, discarding bones and skin. place chicken back in crock pot.

4. at this point chicken soup is ready to eat. Add pasta to bowls and ladle soup over. (we like to store pasta separate from the soup so it doesn’t overcook but you can add the pasta straight to the soup at this point)…alternatively if you decide to add pasta to cook in the slow cooker you will need to add more broth.

enjoy!