Chicken Soup

Last week I was thinking about making one of my favorite soups for dinner, Red Lentil Soup with Warm Spices, but Ted wasn’t feeling well and I thought that a nice chicken soup would be more comforting for him. I love Chicken and Dumplings, and the Pioneer Woman has an excellent recipe, but Ted tries to stay a bit more low carb, so I thought I would just take the recipe and modify it. The changes I made were: She uses a whole, cut up chicken. I used bone in chicken thighs, and removed the skin. She uses 1/2 cup of carrots, I used a lot more, probably 1 1/2 cups. She uses chicken broth, which I would normally do, but I had about 6 cups of turkey stock in my freezer from Thanksgiving, and wanted to use that. I had some peas and some mushrooms laying around, so I added those. I deglazed the pan at one point with a little white wine that I had in my freezer (sometimes if there is just a bit of wine left, I put it in the freezer to use when a recipe calls for a TBSP or something like that.) Her recipe calls for 1/2 cup of apple cider, which I couldn’t find without buying a big bottle, so I used apple juice, and to hell with it, I just threw in the whole bottle, which was 1 cup. Take the link to her recipe if you want yummy C&D, or see my modified version below. This is tasty, and comforting, and a good recipe to help soothe you when your plans to focus on what you can control go awry.

J’s Chicken Soup

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. butter
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 lbs bone in chicken thighs, skin removed
• Salt and pepper 
• 1 1/2 cup finely diced carrots
• 1/2 cup finely diced celery
• 1 whole medium onion, finely diced
• 1/2 cup white wine (optional)
• 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
• 1/2 cup or more frozen peas
• 1/2 tsp. fresh thyme leaves
• 1/4 tsp. turmeric 
• 6 cups leftover turkey broth (or low sodium chicken broth)
• 1 cup apple juice
• 1/2 cup milk

Directions

Sprinkle chicken pieces with salt and pepper, then dredge both sides in flour. Melt butter in a pot over medium-high heat. In two batches, brown chicken on both sides and remove to a clean plate.

Deglaze your pot with wine (if using), then add diced onion, carrots, mushrooms, and celery. Stir and cook for 3 to 4 minutes over medium-low heat. Stir in thyme and turmeric, then pour in broth and apple juice. Stir to combine, then add browned chicken. Cover pot and simmer for 20 minutes.

Remove chicken from pot and set aside on a plate. Use two forks to remove chicken from the bone. Shred, then add chicken and peas to the pot. Add milk, stir, and once soup is hot, serve.