I hope you scanned my Week 1 of A Taste of September post and recipe and consider giving it a try.  It turned out to be a hit with my family.   

September always calls for comfort — the kind that fills your kitchen with warmth and your heart with nostalgia. My chicken soup isn’t just food; it’s a family tradition that sees us through fall, winter, and those under‑the‑weather days.   

I made this last weekend too and was told it was probably one of my best batches of chicken soup.  Isn’t just the sound of chicken soup warm, inviting and soul-serving?  A bowl of soup when you are tired, or cold, or under the weather is one of the best things.  Soup is a staple in our family in the fall/winter.  I believe I mentioned that I tend to gravitate to the same soups over and over again.   Hey, maybe I will do that as a monthly series… try and share 4 new soup recipes.. I think I could be onto something here!   

I make my chicken soup the way I remember seeing my mum making it.  But I have tweaked it over the years.  There are a few things, for me, that make my soup exceptional.  The first is the bones.  I always  start with raw chicken bones – fresh if I can find them, frozen if I must.  I can usually find a pkg of fresh chicken bones and necks at the local grocery store.  If they are not mixed together, I will grab one of each as the base of my soup.  I don’t usually wait for a roast chicken to use the leftover bones and gravitate to the fresh bones.  I guess I just figure that fresh bones will have more flavour.   What I did different last weekend was that I used fresh bones and the carcus from a beer can chicken we had made the night before and WOW, did that ever make a difference.  The other thing I have done from time to time is thrown in any frozen chicken pieces that may have found the back of my freezer that are looking like they may have spent too much time in there.  It’s a great way to clean up what’s in the freezer rather than end up throwing out and make something truly comforting.   

The second is the vegetables I use to make the broth.  I keep a freezer bag for vegetable scraps – carrot peels, broccoli stalks, onion skins, even that last lone bok choy that has passed its prime.  Really any vegetable that is starting to turn like celery,  peppers, or green beans that I don’t think will cook up and don’t want to use.   This last bag had a ton of garlic that really was going too soft to use and press, so in it went.  When it’s time to make chicken stock, I just go to the freezer and grab a bag of vegetables and toss it in.   I have also been known to throw in any bagged frozen vegies left in my freezer that are going freezer burnt.  Throwing my frozen vegie scraps into my stock is my way of turning would be waste into liquid gold.   

And then there is Vegeta https://vegeta.com/en/.  The secret that ties it all together.  The magic to my chicken soup (and actually so much more of my cooking).  Here is what I can tell you about this sh**.  It has been around since 1959, originates from Koprivnica, in Northern Croatia, and was a staple seasoning for our Omama that came to Canada from Croatia.  So if Vegeta was a staple for her… your darn tootin’ it’s going be a staple in my kitchen.  Not always the easiest product to find, so when you see it, grab it.  When I am down to my last cup, I literally start to break out in a sweat – because nothing else tastes quite like home when Vegeta can make all the difference in your dish. 

Now for me, making soup is not quick and dirty.  It take a few hours to develop the broth.  It can get messy with straining, but in the end it is so worth the work and the love.   I make a big batch and I freeze if for when someone is under the weather.  I will add fresh vegetables to it once I have strained and established my broth.  If I have leftover chicken, I will add it.  I ALWAYS serve with soup noodles… but have been known from time to time when the kids were little to serve it with mini ravioli or tortellini insteadof traditional soup noodles. 

So here it is — one of my secret recipes, and my secrets behind it, shared from my heart to yours. I hope you’ll give it a try, and that it brings the same comfort to your table that it always brings to mine.

Chicken Soup

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Course: Appetizer, Soup

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

  

Chicken Stock

• 2 lbs chicken bones necks, backs, or a combinaition of both
• 1 bag vegetable scraps*
• 2 large carrots rough chop
• 2 stalks celery rough chop
• 1 med onion quarterd
• 1 med potato
• 1 Tbsp mixed dry spices like parsly, basil, peppercorns, onion and garlic powder if you have a spice ball, add all together in the spice ball.
• 10-12 c water
• 1 carton chicken stock optional

For the Soup

• 2-3 med carrots peeled and sliced into bit sized pieces
• 2-3 slalks celery sliced into bite size pieces
• 1 large onion sliced
• 3 Tbsp Vegeta
• pepper to taste
• 2 cups leftover chicken broken into bite-sized pieces (optional)
• 2 cups cooked soup noodles prepared to instructions

Method

 

For the Chicken Stock

1. Add chicken bones to a stock pot/large pot.
2. Add your bag of frozen vegetable scraps, along with the additional fresh carrots, onion, celery and potato.*
3. Fill with water until all is well covered, approx 10 cups of water.
4. Add spices to a spice ball and add to the stock mixture. If you don't have a spice ball, just add it to your stock mixture.
5. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer on medium heat for about 3- 4 hours. Skim, as necessary, any fat that comes to the surface.
6. Remove from heat and let cool.
7. Strain the bones and vegetables out of the stock and discard.
8. Strain again.

For the Soup

1. Take the strained stock and add the fresh-cut onions, carrots and celery. Bring to a boil and simmer for a further 10-15 minutes until the vegetables are tender.
2. Add Vegeta and pepper. Season to taste**
3. Add cooked chicken if you have it/want it and let simmer another 10 minutes.
4. While soup is simmering, cook soup noodles according to pkg. Drain and set aside.
5. Serve up soup with soup noodles. Enjoy!
* If you don't have a frozen bag of scraps, just use what you have in the fridge. Use any vegetables like peppers, beans, bok choy, celery, carrots, cabbage, broccoli stems, etc., especially if they are close to the end of their life. Don't forget some garlic cloves!
** Vegeta is salty. Do not salt your soup until you have added your Vegeta and pepper. Taste and decide if you need more Vegeta, seasoning or salt.
Sometimes, if I have a part carton of chicken stock in the fridge, I will top up my stock after I have strained it. I add it with the fresh cut vegies and seasonsoning and finishing off the soup.
For a clearer broth, stay away from starchy vegetables, although I do like to add one potato or a few lingering mini potatoes to my stock.