Basic Is Better When You're Sick

I have found that the best time to try things is when you are craving them. So when my immune system kicked the bucket 2 weeks ago and I had a craving for homemade chicken noodle soup, what do you think I did? Yup, I went online and found an easy looking chicken noodle soup recipe and headed to Publix after work. Now when most people are sick they usually aren’t up to trying new recipes in the kitchen. Usually I’d include myself in that group, but not this time. For some odd reason I really wanted made from scratch, chicken noodle soup.

After hitting up the grocery store, I went home with every intention of making my soup. And that’s exactly what I did… after a two hour nap. It wasn’t until I lugged my groceries up 3 flights of stairs and plopped myself on the couch that I realized how tired I really was. I didn’t feel like taking another trip to the ER, for a sliced finger due to sloppy, sleepy knife handling. You live and learn. I learned very well from that previous experience, but I digress. Below is the recipe I got from the Woman's Day website. It was the simplest recipe that I could find when doing my search.

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

    Ingredients

 

6 c. chicken broth	1 tsp. minced garlic
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken thighs	1 bay leaf
1 c. chopped celery	1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 c. chopped onion	2 c. uncooked egg noodles
1 c. baby carrots, halved crosswise	1/4 c. snipped fresh dill
1 large parsnip, peeled and chopped

   

   Directions 

• Put all ingredients, except noodles and dill, in a pot. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 25 minutes or until chicken is cooked and vegetables tender.
• Discard bay leaf. Remove chicken to plate to cool slightly. Add noodles to soup; cover and simmer10 minutes, or until cooked.
• While noodles cook, shred chicken. Add to soup along with dill and serve.

As per my usual, I made some tweaks to the recipe. This time the goal was to reduce fat and sodium while increasing flavor. Below are the substitutions and adjustments I made to the recipe.

• I bought low sodium chicken broth. The sodium difference between regular broth and the low sodium broth was about 90mg/per serving.
• I used boneless, skinless chicken breast, not thighs. Chicken breast tends to be a little leaner.
• I removed the dill altogether. I’m not a huge fan of that particular herb, though it does go really well with fish.
• I added mushrooms, because I just love them in general.
• I added a bundle of fresh thyme and rosemary. I put the bundle in at the beginning with the chicken and vegetables. It was removed with the chicken and bay leaf. This added a great deal flavor to the soup.

Those few adjustments added to a healthier and more flavorful chicken noodle soup. I think next time I will try freezing some to see how it holds up. It was a great first try for something that I feel should be on my “know how” list of recipes. I will definitely be making this again, with more adjustments, until I get it were I want it to be flavor-wise.

Let me know if you have any thoughts or suggestions on this or any other recipe.

~MLS~