Easy Homemade Chicken Soup
A simple to make chicken soup whose flavor would make your gramdma proud.
Servings 3 quarts
Ingredients
- 3-4 lbs. whole chicken, cut up into parts (you can buy whole chickens already cut up)
- 2-3 parsnips, cut into big chunks
- 3- 4 celery stalks, broken in half
- 1-2 onions, quartered, no need to peel
- 6-8 garlic cloves
- fresh parsley, generous handful
- fresh dill, generous handful, optional
- fresh thyme, several sprigs, optional
- whole peppercorns, optional
- salt, to taste
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in a stockpot. Add water to cover ingredients. Add additional water so that the ingredients are covered by approxximately 4 inches of water. No need to be exact.
- Bring to a boil. Cover stockpot and lower the heat to bring the soup to a gentle simmer (ie. it produces a few small bubbles at a time). Cook soup 2-3 hours until meat easily falls off the chicken bones.
- Strain soup, pressing on the vegetables and chicken so as to extract as much flavor and juice as possible. Salt and pepper to taste.
Notes
- If soup is refrigerated, a layer of fat may rise to the top of your container. For a healthier soup, just skim off the fat and discard.
- Save the chicken that was in the stock. You can add it back to the soup or shred it and use it as a base for chicken tacos or chicken salad.