How to Make Soup....

Hubby cooked tonight, so I thought I'd share my fiesta chicken soup I made the other day.

Having never made soup, I wondered just how hard it could be.  Now authentic soup starts off with home made chicken stock/broth - not that stuff in a can.  So being that our family devours at least 1 rotisserie chicken from Costco each week, I thought I'd see what happens if I boil the "left overs".


So here's what you need to start:

*1 whole mostly eaten cooked chicken - including all the bones! That's the most important part. (We'll use this to make stock and to add chicken pieces to the soup.
*water
*2 tsp sea salt

Place the chicken in a pot and add just enough water to cover.  Add salt. Bring to a boil and simmer for 2 hours or so.  Now, from what I heard, the chicken should fall of the bone at that point.  What people often fail to mention is that the bones also start to separate as the cartilage starts to dissolve.  Therefore, fishing out the bones was not as easy at I thought.  And there was still some good bits of chicken on those bones that I had to take off by hand.  But the resulting chicken stock was exactly what I needed.

Here's how to finish it off:

Add more chicken and/or water if you want more in your soup.
Add:
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 C salsa or salsa verde
1 onion (med), diced
1Tbsp Italian seasoning
1 Tbsp cumin
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp paprika
dash of cayenne pepper (more if you like it with a lot of kick!)
salt and pepper to taste




Let your creation simmer for another 45 minutes or so.  You can choose to play upon this basic soup by adding sausage, vegetables (like carrots or celery), thickening it up a bit with some tomato paste, or creaming it up with some coconut milk.

Making soup from scratch does take patience, but knowing exactly what's in your soup - even down to knowing how much of something there is - is worth it. Unfortunately at this point, it looks as if I'll be only one in the house enjoying it, but I'm not complaining!!

Enjoy!