CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE COLD ~ The Self-Taught Cook™

According to all the book titles out there, chicken soup is good for the soul. I don't know if that's true or not, but I do know that it's good for what ails you. That being said, I woke up this morning with a cold. That draggy, stuffy feeling, when you want someone to hand you a bowl of steaming hot, homemade chicken soup and send you off to bed. Well, Jorge was at work, so if I wanted that soup, I was going to have to make it myself. Fortunately, if I do say so myself, I think my chicken noodle soup is good. So, I spent the day making soup for dinner tonight. During the day, I had to settle for that bought stuff. : (

Now, whenever possible, chicken noodle soup should be made from scratch. But if you really don't want to spend the day first making the broth before making the soup, you can always use ready-to-use chicken stock or broth. If you do, I recommend College Inn Rotisserie Chicken Bold Stock. My recipe originally came from my Betty Crocker Cookbook, which, just in case you need one, is available on Amazon.

Of course, as usual, I have made several changes. So I guess you could say that the recipe that appears here is mine. When you start to make the broth, the recipe calls for you to use a cut-up chicken. But I have a bad habit of buying packages of chicken and cooking half and freezing half. Then I forget about the package and do it all over again. Eventually, I open my freezer and find several packages with a couple of pieces of chicken in each one. And that's what happened to me this week. So instead of using a whole chicken, I just pulled out all those packages and used them. I even found a package of giblets to throw in. If you have a bunch of chicken pieces in your freezer, feel free to do the same.

CHICKEN BROTH

3- to 3 1/2 pound cut-up broiler-fryer chicken

4 1/2 cups cold water

1 tsp salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/4 tsp sage

1/4 tsp rosemary

1/4 tsp thyme

1 bay leaf

1 med. stalk celery with leaves, cut up

1 med. carrot, cut up

1 sm. onion, cut up

1 sprig parsley

Remove excess fat from chicken. Place chicken, giblets (except liver) and neck in 4-quart Dutch oven or stockpot. Add remaining ingredients; heat to boiling. Skim foam from broth; reduce heat. Cover and simmer about 45 minutes. Remove chicken from broth. Cool chicken about 10 minutes or just until cool enough to handle. Strain broth; discard vegetables. Remove skin and bones from chicken. Cut chicken into 1/2-inch pieces. Skim fat from broth. An easy way to skim the fat is to put the broth in the refrigerator and when it gets cold, the fat will solidify at the top of the pot. You can just scoop it off with a spoon. Use broth and chicken immediately, or cover and refrigerate up to 24 hours or freeze for up to 6 months.

CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP

Chicken and broth (see above)

2 cups frozen mixed vegetables

2 med. stalks, celery, sliced

1/4 cup green onion, chopped

1 packet GOYA® Chicken Bouillon

1/4 tsp sage

1/4 tsp rosemary

1/4 tsp thyme

1 bay leaf

2 cups uncooked medium noodles

Make Chicken and broth. Refrigerate cut-up chicken. If broth does not measure 5 cups, add ready-to-use chicken stock or broth to make up the difference. Heat broth, vegetables, celery, onion and bouillon to boiling in Dutch oven; reduce heat. Cover and simmer about 15 minutes. Stir in noodles and chicken. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer 10 minutes or until noodles are tender. If broth cooks down below 3 quarts, I add more chicken stock and let simmer a few minutes more.

Before I leave you, let me give you your music to cook by. The unforgettable Eva Cassidy singing "The Water is Wide" from the movie "The River Wild" with Meryl Streep and Kevin Bacon. Great movie; great song.

Until next time, Happy Cooking! : )