Single Guy’s Kitchen

I cannot stand having a runny nose or having any sort of sinus congestion. It just throws me off entirely. Well I’m tired of it and what’s a better cure than chicken soup? What? No cans of chicken soup in the pantry? Don’t worry with a few simple ingredients and a little time you can throw something together that’s healthier and tastier. Besides, what woman wouldn’t swoon for a man that brought her homemade chicken soup when she wasn’t feeling well?

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

2 ribs celery coarsely chopped

1/2 medium sweet onion chopped

1 large clove garlic chopped

4 oz baby carrots halved

leftover cooked chicken (use as much or as little as you like)

2 cups chicken broth

thyme, salt, black pepper to taste

Heat your oil over medium heat in the pot you want to use. In the meantime start chopping your garlic and onion. Throw the garlic in as soon as you get it chopped and then add the onion. This gives the garlic more time to release its flavor. Let these soften and sweeten. Keep an eye on your heat too, I ended up turning it to medium low once I had my ingredients in the pot. While the onion and garlic is working, chop your carrots and celery (or whatever vegetables you want to use). Toss them in and make sure to stir things up. You want everything coated well. I let this cook for a good five minutes or so while I picked apart a leftover rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. I ended up using about the equivalent of a thigh I think but how much chicken you use is totally up to you.

Now that the veggies have softened up and lost some of their raw character throw in the chicken and your spices. I was pretty liberal with the thyme and the black pepper. Next add your chicken broth. Mix everything up, turn your heat back up to medium and let it come to a simmer. Once you’ve got it bubbling slightly turn your heat to low and put a lid on it. I let it sit like this for about 30 minutes while I did some other things but you could certainly adjust this to your liking.

Really you can modify and adapt this anyway you want. You even just heat up chicken broth with spices if you really wanted. I liked my veggies chunky and still with a little firmness to them but you can change it up. Cauliflower or broccoli would probably work well too. I’m sure frozen vegetables would be fine too. Flexibility and personal preference is the name of the game with a meal like this.

This is the simple kind of stuff that separates the man who just opens a can from the man that can think on his feet and throw together a quick, homemade meal in a pinch. Who do you want to be? I’ll take this over the can any day.