Homemade Chicken Soup (AKA: Stuffy Nose Soup)

This morning Sassy awoke with the sneezy sniffles.  She was doing well holding her own for a good part of the day, but by 3:00 she was ready for a nap and was pretty miserable.  As soon as we got home I settled her into the couch with a warm blanket, a "lovie" (a stuffed animal she is in love with...we have many) and popped in a movie so she could relax a while.  Peanut seemed happy to join her so I went into the kitchen to get started on some homemade soup.  

My absolute FAVORITE pot!!

I love soups!  You can put anything you want into them and they are warm and comforting on a nice fall day (like today).  I always have homemade stock in the freezer and I had just gone out and bought a months worth of meat so I had plenty of chicken on hand.  (When I make stock I  Next is vegetables.  I like to use the carrots, peas, onion, celery and if I have it, a handful of kale.  I also will add in garlic, salt and pepper and you're done!  I sometimes I'll add in a gluten free pasta or rice, but I didn't want the yummy healthy goodness of my stock to get soaked up.  Sassy can be pretty picky when it comes to food.  She calls this soup "Stuffy Nose Soup" and will usually pick out the carrots and chicken and will sip on the broth.  

Homemade is the ONLY way to go, especially when it comes to a healing bowl of chicken soup!  Making your own stock has many health benefits and is healing to the body. See:  "Why Broth is Beautiful": Weston Price Foundation.  The vegetables all have wonderful health benefits as well.  You can't go wrong! When someone recommends soup for illness they are not wrong! The problem is you can't get these healing benefits from a can. Click HERE for my recipe for making your own stock.

Stuffy Nose Soup

• 3 cups of homemade organic chicken stock (or vegetable stock)
• 2 cups of filtered water
• 1-1/2 Ibs of raw organic chicken (omit if you want a veggie soup)
• 3 organic carrots
• 1 organic onion
• 3 stalks of organic celery
• 1/2 cup of frozen green peas
• 1/2 cup organic kale
• 1 clove of garlic
• Salt and pepper

1. If your broth/stock is frozen, place the jars in a bowl of hot water to begin to defrost.
2. Roughly cop the carrots, onion, celery and kale.
3. Crush and finely chop the garlic as small as possible (the last thing you want to do is take a ite of your soup and get a big chunk of garlic!)
4. Cut up the raw chicken into small bite sized pieces.
5. Add all of the ingredients into a pot and bring to a boil.  (The stock should now be defrosted enough to slide out of the jar and will melt in the pot.)
6. Boil until the chicken in cooked through and the vegetables are soft. (Approx 30 minutes)
7. Salt and Pepper to taste.
8. Enjoy!

Bon Appetite!!