I’m just going to come out and say it: I dread this season.
Don’t get me wrong, I used to love fall. But now that I have kids, this is the season of sickness. Already since the girls have started school, we’ve had this incredibly bad cold, cough, and fever virus circulating through the four of us at least three times. It’s brutal, and this is only the beginning.
At least there’s chicken soup, though!
I’m a big believer in chicken soup as a healing food. Nothing is better than a warm bowl of chicken soup when the weather is crap outside and you can’t breathe through your nose. My chicken soup recipe adds the anti-inflammatory properties of garlic, ginger, and turmeric to really destroy whatever ails you. Even if you’re not sick, this soup is a winner!
You can make this soup literally in 30 minutes, because it uses pre-made chicken broth as the base. Use a rotisserie chicken, already-shelled peas, and you’re on the way to a quick and delicious dinner. One great thing about chicken soup is that it freezes well, so anything you don’t eat can go into the freezer. Portion it out and keep it for a night that’s cold and you don’t want to cook.
I sometimes put noodles into this soup, and I recommend that if you’d like them in the recipe, cook them separately and serve the soup over them. That way, you avoid mushy noodles.
Just a note about this recipe. I don’t want you to worry about how many cups of onions, how many teaspoons of lemon zest, or how many peas you need, down to the last little pea. I’ve intentionally left this as sort of an un-recipe, because simply, following it to a tee doesn’t really matter all that much in the finished product. As long as you have the right amount of broth, everything else is somewhat approximate. Don’t freak out, it will be delicious. Along the same lines, feel free to add ingredients, too. Fresh dill, hot peppers, kimchi, parsnip, kale, whatever…they can all be added with great results.
- 4 – 900ml boxes of chicken broth
- 1 roasted chicken all meat picked off and cut into medium chunks, I use rotisserie chicken
- 2 medium yellow onions chopped
- 5-6 cloves garlic minced
- 1 400 g bag of shelled peas around 1.5 cups
- 1 green onion diced
- 4 very large carrots cut into ½” rounds
- 2 T olive oil
- 1 3- inch knob of ginger peeled
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 t ground turmeric
- Zest from 1 lemon finely tested - use a microplane if you can
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In a large pot, saute the onions and garlic in olive oil until fragrant.
Add the chicken and turmeric and continue to sauté for another 3-4 minutes, or until the chicken is slightly browned.
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Add the remaining ingredients to the pot, and cook on medium-low heat until the carrots are soft and flavours are melded, around 30 minutes.
The soup gets more flavourful the longer it sits! Enjoy!