All-Natural Homemade Chicken Soup

I hate cooking. You know this. I have to REALLY psyche myself up to cook. And give myself pep talks along the way.

One of my not so favorite, yet favorite meals to cook is homemade chicken soup. Mainly because I know it will last a week in our house which means a week of not having to think about cooking. I thank God every day that he gave me a husband who doesn’t care about eating the same meal every night for 7 days!

A friend of mine recently asked for my chicken soup recipe, so I decided to share it with you all today. Now normally I’m not one for sharing recipes because again, I don’t really cook. But…MY SOUP IS GOOD. Like really good. And all natural. It is the one thing I’m proud I can say I make because I make it really well. So well that I’m not afraid to share it with you. See?

Things to know: It takes me 6 hours to prep my chicken because I make it in a CrockPot. So if you want this for dinner, prep it in the morning! Additional prep time after that: about 2 hours.

Things to gather:

• 1 whole organic chicken (I buy mine from Trader Joes. It’s smaller in size and doesn’t have the nasty giblets in it)
• 6 stalks of celery
• 6 stalks of carrots
• 2 onions
• 1 potato (optional)
• Italian seasoning
• salt
• pepper
• Adobo (or whatever seasoning you want)
• CrockPot <—-this is what you’re cooking your chicken in
• large stock pot

Once your broth has simmered for about an hour, place a strainer inside of a large bowl that will accommodate the strainer’s size without making a mess (deep enough and wide enough!). Carefully remove the pot off the heat and strain the carcass remains to separate your now really yummy broth like so (this helps remove any bones!).

Discard everything in the strainer. Now place your strained broth back in the pot on high heat and add all of your chopped veggies. Add in your Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper (to taste).

Allow this to cook until veggies are soft (I think I leave it for 30-45 minutes or so?). This is where you can make some Orzo pasta or any other type of small soup noodle, but honestly there’s so much chicken in here that it’s not necessary. Plus, it’s healthier without the pasta. Pour into a bowl and enjoy. 🙂

Note: This makes enough to freeze/refrigerate. It may gel over when refrigerating because it’s made from natural chicken broth. Once heated, the gel consistency dissolves. 🙂

If you try it out, let me know how you like it!