Cheater's Chicken Soup
By cooking the different components ahead of time and then throwing them together to simmer, you can cut down your cooking time drastically. I prefer to use homemade chicken (or even turkey) stock as the base (the same flavor as in the traditional soup, even though you didn't spend hours boiling the chicken). You can totally use boxed broth in a pinch. A quick saute of the carrots, onions, and celery combined with some tasty oven-baked chicken thighs - this soup is hearty. It's comforting. It will stick to your bones. An extra bit of goodness - boiling it with a handful of fresh dill.
Servings: 8
Ingredients
- three 32 oz boxes of chicken stock or, the equivalent of homemade stock
- 5-6 chicken thighs
- 1 large yellow onion diced
- 4-5 celery stalks split down the length and chopped into 1/2 inch dice
- 6 carrots peeled, split down the length and chopped into 1/2 inch dice
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
- kosher salt & pepper
- fresh dill
- additional noodles and/or matzo balls
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350F. Place the chicken thighs on a large baking sheet. Make sure you spread them out.
- Sprinkle generously with kosher salt & pepper.
- Bake the chicken thighs for about 25-30 minutes, or until fully cooked.
- Put aside to cool before shredding/dicing.
- While the chicken is cooking, bring the stock plus the 2 bay leaves to a low boil in a large pot.
- As the stock is heating, dice the onion, carrots, and celery.
- In a large pan, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Once heated, add in the diced vegetables.
- Saute gently, making sure not to brown too much, until softened. Stir occasionally. Lower the heat if necessary to prevent too much browning.
- Once the vegetables have softened, remove from the heat.
- Remove the bay leaves from the simmering broth before adding in the vegetables.
- Shred or dice the cooled chicken thighs and add to the soup along with a handful of fresh dill.
- Allow to simmer for 10 minutes.
- Salt and pepper to taste.
- We like to boil up some wide egg noodles separately from the soup, to add in after simmering. Matzo balls are also delicious. The soup freezes very well.
Notes
This soup freezes extremely well. Juts portion out into Tupperware and leave about an inch of space at the top of each container. The soup will expand slightly as it freezes.