It’s getting cold out there, finally. Once there gets to be a little chill in the air, I get excited, because that means it’s going to be soup time really soon.
I saw a lot of chicken soup recipes that contained Italian seasoning and relied on pre-cooked chicken, like the cheap rotisserie chickens you can get from Costco or your local grocery store. And that’s fine, but I wanted to do two specific thing with my chicken soup recipe instead:
- Rely on more flavors I associate with poultry dishes – in this case, sage and thyme
- Simmer bone-in, skin on chicken in order to get a nice mouthfeel by rendering out the collagen, as well as add an extra shot of chicken-y flavor in the final dish without resorting to adding bouillon powder like a lot of other recipes called for
After a few rounds of experimentation, this is what I came up with, and I am very happy with the results. I tried this with 6 cups of that Better than Bouillon stuff instead of the stock, and that was completely fine as well, and is a perfectly valid choice if you don’t have chicken stock on hand. I do recommend you use the straight chicken flavor in that case, though. I gave it a try with the roasted garlic flavor and it didn’t taste bad by any means, it just overshadowed the other flavors of the dish.
Savory Chicken Soup
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 leek halved and thinly sliced
- 1 large red onion diced
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3 stalks celery sliced into 1/2 inch pieces
- 3 large carrots sliced into 1/4 inch medallions
- 1 teaspoon sage
- 1 tablespoon thyme
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 4 tablespoons worcestershire sauce
- 3 bay leaves
- 8 chicken thighs bone in skin on
- 1 48-ounce container chicken stock
- 1 lemon juiced
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- In a large stockpot or dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium heat while slicing the leek.
- When oil is warm, add the leek and saute for a few minutes while dicing the onion.
- Add onion to the pot with the salt and sweat while chopping the carrots and celery.
- Add carrots, celery, sage, thyme, garlic powder, and worcestershire sauce. Stir to combine.
- Add bay leaves, chicken thighs, broth, and lemon juice. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 90 minutes.
- After 90 minutes, remove chicken to a plate. Remove skin and bone and dice or shred chicken. Return to pot and cook an additional 30 minutes or until carrots and celery are at desired tenderness.
- Remove bay leaves and taste for seasoning.
Make it? Love it?
