Spicy Chicken Vegetable Soup
Pack this soup with great organic ingredients and you will scare away any cold or flu virus. Just smelling the aroma of the chicken broth as it is simmering, makes you feel great. Take your time as you are making this Spicy Chicken Vegetable Soup. The lower and slower you cook the ingredients, the better the flavor. This is also the best way to keep the nutrients high.
I started the broth base for the soup with 3 boxes of organic chicken broth and built the soup from there. The flavor was so rich and satisfying. It smells and tastes as good as the picture. Here is my recipe. Use whatever vegetables you have available, if you don’t have carrots and celery to make the broth base.
Spicy Chicken Vegetable Soup
Broth for Soup
3 36 ounce boxes of low sodium chicken broth
3 large carrots, sliced in 3″ pieces
3 celery stalks, sliced into 3″ pieces
1 large sweet onion, peeled and quartered
4 whole garlic cloves. peeled
6 sprigs of cilantro
2 bay leaves, whole
1 4″ piece of ginger root, peeled and sliced
1 pound chicken backs, skinned (or one pound chicken thighs, skinned)
6 whole peppercorns
Broth base ingredients:
2 pounds of chicken breast or one small roaster chicken
6 green onions, sliced thin
2 teaspoons grated ginger root
2 cloves fresh garlic, minced
2 large carrots, diced small
1 cup sliced boc choy
1 cup shredded napa cabbage
1 cup sliced snow peas
1 lime, zested and sliced
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
Directions for broth base:
Put everything in a stainless 6 quart pan with a lid and simmer for 2.5 hours on low to reduce the volume by half. If the broth reduces too quickly, turn the heat down next time. When you are finished, you should have an amazing base for your soup. Strain the solids from the liquid with a wire mesh strainer and discard the solids. At this point, you can separate any fat from the broth pretty easily if you refrigerate the broth. If you are in a hurry, use a fat separator , or just leave it in the soup. It adds richness to the soup and there shouldn’t be much if you skinned the chicken parts before adding them to the soup.
While the base if simmering, you can prepare the other ingredients for your soup. You can roast chicken breast or a whole chicken, if you enjoy light and dark meat. Dice the chicken pieces. Finely dice or slice your fresh vegetables to add for a brief 15 minutes to barely cook them. I used carrots, napa cabbage, boc choy, snow peas and green onions. I shredded ginger root and pressed garlic to add zest to the flavor. You could also pan brown some peanuts or toast some sesame seeds to add flavor. Finally you might want to add 1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes to the soup for extra spicy flavor.
Add your prepared ingredients to the soup just before you are ready serve it. Finish with lime zest and a little freshly squeezed lime juice.
© 2016 Artful Chefs, Inc. All reproduction rights reserved. May not be reproduced without expressed written permission.
