My favorite chicken soup recipe (gluten free, dairy free)

Chicken soup and I go way back and for most of my life it has been sadly misunderstood. When I was growing up, chicken soup and sprite were “sick foods”. You had them when you were sick and only when you were sick so after a while a “sick” flavor formed in my mind and I was set in my ways and I only had chicken soup and sprite when I was sick because if I tried to have them when I wasn’t sick, I tasted the sick and it was extremely off-putting. The only time chicken soup or sprite would taste good was when I was sick. Yes, I know I am neurotic. 

Then I lost Maggie and my awesome friend Megan made me chicken soup and it was just so comforting that chicken soup transformed into a comfort food in my mind and in my palate. I have no idea what recipe she used, but it rocked my world and changed my relationship with chicken soup forever. Thanks, Megan ❤ 

So I started looking for a chicken soup recipe that I could make. I used to make chicken soup all the time –well, mostly when someone was sick except for that one time a friend and I went through my little black bartender book and my liquor cabinet and decided to try every recipe we had the ingredients for and somehow I also wound up making chicken soup (along with a substantial mess) that night. I guess I had all the ingredients for that recipe, too. . . Unfortunately, I either never wrote down my recipe or lost it in the 5 or so moves I’ve had since then. 

I finally found this gem and even though I had no clue what a parsnip was, it called me and I decided to try it. Life altering. It’s amazing how chicken soup can change your life. Maybe that’s only true if you’re a foodie? Either way. Life altering for me. 

For the most part, I stuck to the recipe because it is soup nirvana, but I did add leeks after I discovered them in a stir fry recipe. If you have not discovered leeks, I strongly encourage you to go to the grocery store and smell them. They are as lovely to the nose as the tongue and vice versa. I also added garlic and ginger both for their flavors and their health benefits and some parsley and thyme. I chop the onion last, as I’ve read onions absorb the germs from the air from the time they’re cut until the time they’re cooked and I don’t want to add germs to my soup in my onions. Finally, I don’t use all the chicken in the soup, I reserve some for wraps or another recipe the next day and I don’t discard the bones or the skin, I use them to make bone broth in my power cooker, which is a super nutritious and cheap addition to our diet and a great thing to have on hand for upset tummies as it’s packed with nutrition and easy to digest and just a great thing to add to any recipe in place of processed chicken broth, using the parts of the chicken you’ve already bought that you would otherwise just discard. Bonus the bone broth you make with this batch of soup can be frozen and used in the next batch of soup. It’s like the soup circle of life. 

The recipe I use is below, the original is here and can I just interrupt myself for a moment to say thank God for Pioneer Woman? Her recipes are seriously a foodie dream come true as far as taste goes and a healthy cooking dream come true. Sometimes when I’m looking for a recipe to try, I type in what I want followed by Pioneer Woman because I’ve had so many successes with her recipes. I’m a big fan of her recipes to say the least. 

Chunky Chicken Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 whole chicken
• 1 bay leaf
• 64 ounces bone broth (or a combination of bone broth and water, if desired)
• 1 large onion or 2 small onions, diced
• 4 whole ribs of celery, sliced thickly (my husband does not like celery and I love him so I usually pick them out of his — shhh don’t tell the kids)
• 4 whole large carrots, peeled and chopped
• 3 whole parsnips, peeled and chopped (I buy parsnips in a one pound bag, usually there are 3 occasionally there are 4, either way I use the whole bag.)
• 1 leek, sliced thinly 
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 1″ ginger, peeled and finely minced
• Salt to taste
• Pepper to taste
• Parsley to taste 
• Thyme to taste

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients but the pepper into a pot. I like to put the chicken, the veggies, the spices and then the broth and if the broth doesn’t cover them all, I add a little water so it does. 
2. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. 
3. Cover and simmer for 1 hour, or until chicken is done but not falling off the bone (this makes it easier to remove from the pot intact). 
4. Remove chicken, reserve skin and bones if you’d like to make bone broth, chop meat to desired size and return as much chicken as you desire to the pot. Continue to simmer for 30 minutes to an hour until vegetables are tender, and soup flavor is divine.
5. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed, continue to simmer on low until ready to serve. 
6. Serve in a bowl, then sprinkle black pepper over the top. I also like to garnish with avocado slices. Yummy. 
7. Enjoy and repeat. 

Recipe credit to Ree at thepioneerwoman.com. I don’t know her, but I love her food. 

*Note: Adjust broth levels and/or vegetable amounts as needed. Also, this makes a lot of soup and it is a good freezer recipe. We are going to eat on it tonight and once it cools, I’ll be freezing it for the next time someone gets sick because it’s so much easier to have chicken soup on hand when someone is sick than to have to make it and comfort a sick child at the same time.