Chicken Soup for a Cold

[Goodweed of the North]

Ok. Before I put this recipe down, if anyone here is not fond of spice-hot food, leave now. For the rest of you, this is a no-brainer.

Hot Chicken Soup

Ingrediants:
2 chicken breast carcasses, raw
1 chicken neck, raw
2 chicken wings, skin on and uncooked
1 cup finely diced chicken meat, white and dark mixed
4 green onions
one large carrot, peeled and sliced paper thin (use a vegetable peeler)
1 habenaro pepper, chopped/with seeds
1 tsp. "Better Than Boulion" brand chicken soup base
1 quart of water
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. coarsely ground black pepper
Enough linguini noodles for 2 people

Add the chicken bones, water, and soup base into a large pot and boil over medium heat for 1 hour, covered. Strain the broth through a fine-wire sieve. Add everything else except the chicken meat. Simmer for 30 minutes. Add the linguini and cook for 15 minutes more, or until the pasta is done just right. Add the diced chicken and cook just until the meat is done through. Do not overcook and dry out the chicken meat.

This stuff is great. The chicken soup is very flavorful on its own. The linquine adds just the right pasta texture, more firm than are egg-noodles or spagheti. The habanaro adds only heat. There is very little flavor from this hot pepper.

The reuslt is that you get all of the goodness from disolved collagen, protien from the chicken meat, an all kinds of nutients from the carrots and green onions. Plus, the capsican in the pepper help clear up your sinuses and add signigicant nutritional value to the meal. I made this tonight and it was yummy.

Seeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North

[Maverick2272]

Sounds great, but I always end up having problems with putting pasta in soups. I put them in at the end, 15 minutes before the end, but they always end up disintegrating on me.
Any tips??

[kitchenelf]

Mav - cook your pasta separately and cook to the al dente stage. Run under cold water immediately and let cool COMPLETELY.

When you are ready to serve add the re-warmed pasta to the individual bowls. OR, you can just add it back to the soup and it won't get AS soggy.

MOST pasta cooks way before 15 minutes too.

Great recipe GW - it's copied and pasted. LOVE the habanero in there too!

[Goodweed of the North]

I did put the linguini into the soup during the last ten minutes or so. I also had a good ratio of pasta to soup as I was playing with the idea of making a chicken-flavored pasta rather than chick-soup with noodles. So with the veggies and the pasta in place, the broth was barely enough to really call it soup. But there was enough and it really came out great.

Linguini won't disintegrate as fast as egg-noodles, or even kluski noodles as it is a bit thicker, without as much surface area to absorb liquid. Just make sure all of the veggies are added before puttin in the noodles. Actually, the noodles go in before the meat as the meat only needs about eight minutes or so to cook through. That way, the meat is done, but still full of flavor and extremely tender.

Seeeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North

[Maverick2272]

We usually use egg noodles, so next time I will try the linguine and see if that helps. I know DW always cooks the noodles separately and then adds them back in a bowl at a time, but I want mine the way it comes from the store!

[Dave Hutchins]

Thank you GW copied and pasted and printed sounds very good.

[Constance]

I prefer to use a whole chicken, and add garlic to the soup.

I never thought of adding a hot pepper, but that's an excellent idea. I think I'll use a jalapeno instead, though...habanero's are too hot for me.

[Caine]

Sorry, but if you ask any Yenta, she'll tell you that it ain't gonna work for a cold unless you include the feet!

[ErikC]

I made chicken soup for my roommate's daughter last weekend, because she had a cold. It must have worked, because she is better and I have the cold now!