Chicken Soup Really is Good for the Soul

It is a blustery, cold, windy day today here in Eastern Washington. Reality has set in that fall is here to stay, and winter is fast approaching. Darkness managed to come sooner than yesterday, and I finally gave up the dream that our garden will produce for another few weeks. Temperatures have dropped and we are harvesting the last crop of carrots to make some hearty chicken soup.

My daughter is asleep on the sofa with the flu, and the other two are snuggled on the sofa watching a movie and waiting for me to create some mommy magic with my bunch of carrots.

I have to admit, I did chicken noodle soup.

As a mother, I think that it’s a skill most of us have refined—making a batch of soup for our littles just feels nurturing. Tonight, though, maybe it was the glass of wine in my hand or the Melody Gardot coming over the stereo or maybe the magical carrots, but my recipe was so delicious, I had to share.

We like to cook in cast iron at our house, so I started by sauteing the chopped carrots in organic coconut oil. Add one chopped sweet onion and a large scoop of diced garlic. When the above is crisp-tender, put it in your soup pot, add three 32-oz boxes of organic chicken broth and while you bring that to a boil, chop five stalks of celery with leaves included (I buy mine with as many leaves as I can find). They add so much flavor when added to the broth. Quickly saute the celery for less than a minute in coconut oil and add to your broth.

Our family likes only the breast, so we cube it, but you can add any chicken. Saute with salt and pepper to taste in coconut oil again until done, thoroughly. Add to your broth. It should be looking colorful and hearty. Yum!

The last two ingredients we add are “Better than Bullion” chicken bullion (at least two large scoops) and fresh fettuccini noodles. Let it boil until they are done.

The flavors melding with the subtle taste of the coconut was just what the doctor ordered. We all licked our bowls clean.