Hearty chicken soup

I never make any soup exactly the same any two times. I always try to use what I have on hand or what is fresh in season, or flavors that I am currently loving. This is a great base for any chicken soup recipe. When cooking any soup that has pasta or rice, I always cook my them separately, because most of my family prefers the veggies, broth and meat over the grain. I have one son who loves extra beans, and one that loves a pasta heavy, broth heavy bowl. It is such an easy way to accommodate everyones preferences.

For this chicken soup I used these ingredients, and I will share in the order I used them.

2 tsp butter (any butter works fine, but lately I am loving kerrygold)

2 tsp olive oil

2 gloves garlic

A clipping from my rosemary

1/2 chicken in pieces

For this soup I wanted a really richly flavored broth but didn't have time to cook it for hours and hours. So instead of cooking the chicken and spices to allow it to leak it's flavors into the broth all day, I decided I would brown up the organic chicken half that I found at the grocery store on our way home from our little getaway. This will force the flavors out and allow me to caramelize the pot before adding the water for the broth.

In my large soup pot, I added the olive oil and butter, and brought it to a high heat.

I then wedged all the pieces of chicken, skin side down into the oil and butter, once it was hot enough to make the chicken sizzle. I LOVE the sound of food sizzling!

Once the chicken was a bit brown, I flipped it and added salt and pepper to the other side. and gave it a few more minutes to simmer and sizzle. Add a bit of water to deglaze the pan and add to the flavor. Keep on the heat for a minute.

Then I brought the pot to the sink and filled it almost 2/3's of the way with water. Bring to a boil, and then reduce.

Water: fill your pot 2/3rds of the way

I throw in the bottom cutting of my celery

An onion peeled and cut in half

More rosemary and basil

Salt and pepper

I don't measure. I start a good sprinkle but I taste my food as I cook, you have to taste as you go with every meal that you make. I just use a new spoon with each tasting.

After 45 minutes of simmering this broth, I begin to pull out the chicken, onion, celery head.

I typically throw all of this into a strainer to allow it to cool.

I then taste the broth and add more salt or pepper, or garlic, or garlic powder as needed.

For this recipe I added in:

8-10 small red potatoes quartered

2 cups of mushrooms

a bunch of carrots cut thinly

5 celery stocks cut thinly

3 small zucchini's cut thinly

10 big handfuls of spinach

Other things you can add:

Corn

Cannellini or black beans

any veggie you love most.

For my family,

In a separate pot, I cook the pasta that the kids request, typically small shells, and when they are sick they want an egg noodle.

If your family doesn't have dietary preferences, you can add your rice/pasta preference directly to the pot to cook in.