Everyone loves a homemade turkey or chicken soup recipe.
Whether it’s to warm up your insides on a cold day, help cure the common cold or provide a welcome steaming bowl of comfort, chicken or turkey soup fills the bill.
There are a surprising number of ways to flavor this chicken soup and I have suggested several variations below the basic recipe.
I keep interchanging chicken and turkey because the same recipe is used to make turkey soup. Just substitute a turkey carcass for the chicken.
And don’t forget the basics – this chicken soup recipe without the noodles or rice and strained of all the vegetables is a versatile chicken broth that can be used to add flavor in hundreds of recipes.
Chicken Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 carrots, peeled and sliced
- 2 stalks celery, sliced
- 1 teaspoon oil
- 3 pounds leftover chicken carcass, or turkey carcass or 3 pounds of chicken pieces
- 1 -2 bay leaves
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/2 cup rice, or 2 cups noodles
Instructions
- Heat oil in large pot. Place chopped onion, celery and carrots into pot and fry gently for about 5 minutes, until they are soft but not carmelized.
- Add chicken or turkey carcass or pieces and bay leaf. Add water to cover, about 2 quarts, but this varies with the size of the carcass or amount of meat you use. Just make sure it is covered.
- Add salt to taste. Boil for 2 hours, checking near the end of the cooking time to see if you need more salt. Add pepper at that time.
- Remove meat and bones. Add rice or noodles and cook for about 20 minutes more. Cut cooled meat into small pieces and add back to the pot.
Nutrition
Tips and Variations:
- For chicken broth: Do not add rice or noodles. Strain out all the vegetables and meat. Try freezing it in ice cube trays. Just take out the number of cubes you need for a recipe and it is ready to go.
- To make this a gluten free soup add rice or another gluten free grain instead of noodles. You can also add potatoes. Add 2 or 3 potatoes, peeled and chopped, instead of the rice or noodles.
- Try adding 1-2 sprigs of fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon of dried thyme to the basic chicken soup recipe for added flavor.
- To kick it up a notch, grate fresh ginger into the soup near the end of the cooking time. Omit the pepper.
- Add a bouquet garni of fresh herbs to the pot. Try a mix of fresh thyme, the 2 bay leaves from the basic recipe, 2-3 cloves of garlic and a handful of Italian flat leaf parsley tied together in a bit of cheesecloth. Discard after cooking.
- For a different but delicious flavor sensation add 3 tablespoons of cider vinegar (yes – vinegar!) and 4 or 5 sprigs of fresh flat leaf parsley to the basic chicken soup recipe. This gives a lovely fresh flavor to the broth.
- If you want to significantly lower the fat content of the soup, chill it before serving. The fat will solidify on the top and you can skim it off with a spoon. When you heat it, the soup will be almost fat free.
As you can see above you can vary the starch you add to turn this into a great chicken noodle soup recipe, a chicken rice soup or chicken soup with potatoes.
This is a gluten free recipe if you make the soup with either rice or potatoes instead of noodles. To make it a low carb recipe, simply leave out any of the starches, rice, potatoes or noodles. It is a very healthy diabetic recipe.
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For more soup recipes as delicious as our chicken soup recipe, look here.
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