Sherri’s Quick Chicken Soup

Sherri’s Quick Chicken Soup

(Whole 30 Compliant)

This is a go to recipe for me.  I’d say we have this soup about 2-3 times per week, or at least some incarnation of it.  Sometimes we don’t add the chicken and just do it with vegetables and sometimes we add peppers and hot sauce to give it more of a Mexican feel, in the summer we add zucchini and/or string beans.  You get the idea.  Once you have this recipe to use as a base, it’s very easy to play with to get a meal on the table quickly but with lots of variety and nutrition.

Ingredients:
1 onion, ¼ inch dice

2 carrots, peeled, sliced into ¼ inch rounds

2 celery stalks, sliced into ¼ inch thick half moons

2 whole cloves garlic, minced

3 skinned/boned chicken thighs, cut into ¼ inch pieces

Salt

1/4 teaspoon Pepper

1/2 teaspoon Turmeric

1 teaspoon Garlic powder

1 tablespoon herbs de Provence

1 quart bone broth or just chicken broth

2 teaspoon umeboshi vinegar (optional)*

Directions:

Set yourself up with two separate pans: a large rondeau (a deep and wide pan that is wider than it is deep) and a typical 10 inch saute pan.  Pour a tablespoon of oil in both pans.

In the larger pan, saute the onions, carrots, celery and garlic with a pinch of salt. Once the vegetables are sweat (starting to exude liquid and shimmering), add  the pepper, turmeric, garlic powder, and herbs de Provence. Continue to sweat the vegetables for another minute to wake up the spices.  Then add the broth and bring up to a boil.

Meanwhile, add the chicken to the other pan with a pinch of salt and saute until all the pieces are cooked through. (I usually add a dash of each of the spices to this pan as well after the meat is cooked).  Pour the meat into the pan with the broth. Take a half cup of the broth and add it to the now empty meat pan to deglaze it and scrape up all the bits on the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon.  Pour that broth back into the larger pan.

Once everything is up to a boil, bring the broth back down to a simmer and cook covered until the carrots and celery are tender. (about 10 minutes).

*At this point in the process, if you want to add some pasta to your soup, go with a small shape like ditalini or mini shells and add about 1/2 cup of pasta while the soup simmers.

Taste and feel free to add more salt or spices.  I usually add the umeboshi vinegar at this point.

Serve warm!

* I often add umeboshi for a more salty flavor and when I’m feeling a little under the weather because of the ultra high Vitamin C content in umeboshi vinegar