“HOMEMADE CHICKEN SOUP”
By Nadjah
The kitchen is an exciting place, and for good reason. A place to cook, create, and best of all, the place to eat! What is better than to feel content with a great dish of the good stuff, like your favorite foods.
Wonderful homemade dishes served to family and friends, making smiles and memories for a lifetime.
We are all very fortunate to have the varieties of foods offered to us nowadays. Have you ever entered your favorite grocery store or market and said to yourself, as you viewed the fresh produce, what is that? For example, look at the horseradish root, the fresh tumeric, and the fresh ginger root.
WOW, I say to myself, I need to look up some of those roots, they are very interesting. They are here for us to eat so we can find out about them. Many countries use certain roots regularly in their cooking. Something good to look into. I hear some of these roots are actually medicinal.
I like to grate some of these roots into my cooking. I incorporate the tumeric, for example, into the chicken, and meat, and egg dishes. Good fresh roots and spices are part of my cooking methods now. My husband is forever adding the peeled fresh tumeric and ginger roots to our smoothies. That is fruit and veggie smoothies, that we enjoy almost daily. They add a lot of extra flavor and they are keeping us very healthy. Hey, that’s good!
Of course, it does take some research on our parts. Not all roots are created equal, if you know what I mean.
Cooking with your favorite broths, such as vegetable, chicken, fish or beef can eliminate using all of the oils and butters. Don’t get me wrong, I love my good olive oils and real sweet butters but I do like to cut down on that too sometimes. Better for the waistline! Ha, just sometimes though.
So…..is your kitchen an exciting place?
Just maybe you need to give it a little bit of refreshing. Go ahead and get into that pantry and sort out some things. Perhaps you would like to go shopping and purchase some new spices and goodies to cook and create with. Who doesn’t like to go shopping for the yummy stuff, right? Many times when I am sorting through the pantry I enjoy cooking a good homemade soup and one of my favorites is chicken soup, so here is little recipe for you.
“HOMEMADE CHICKEN SOUP”
Ingredients
Use a 4 to 5 pound chicken and cut into pieces. Or use your left over skinned chicken
1 large onion, chopped
About 6 to 8 cups of filtered water
1 teaspoon of your favorite ground pepper
2 teaspoons, at least of salt
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup sliced carrots
4 to 5 tablespoons of fresh parsley and or cilantro
2 bay leaves
Chicken bouillon cubes too, if you like, 1 or 2 cubes
Try some grated peeled tumeric root also, if you like, 1/2 to 1 teaspoon
1 teaspoon granulated garlic or 3 to 4 garlic cloves, chopped
Using a large cooking pot, bring the water, onion, salt and pepper, bay leaves and chicken to a roaring boil.
Reduce the heat.
Simmer, simmer covered about 2 hours after adding the tumeric and garlic.
Remove from heat and debone the chichen pieces when cooled.
Cut chicken as you like, small chuncks or large chunks.
Throw away the bay leaf, if you like, and skim off the fat after bringing to a boil once again.
Now add the carrots and celery. Of course you can add whatever veggies you like. For example, fresh green beans or lima beans, corn, tomatoes, whatever! Tomatoes are good in the soup. Reduce to medium heat.
Also, you can at this time add 1/2 cup of egg noodles or 1/2 cup rice.
Bring down temperature from medium to a simmer and continue to simmer for about 20 to 30 minutes after adding the chicken pieces, parsley,and cilanto.
OK, time to bring out the soup bowls, our homemade chicken soup is now being served.
Simply yummy any time of the year! Have some garlic bread and a little wine with your homemade chicken soup and you will be happy, I guarantee it! Enjoy your soup!