Feel Better Chicken Soup

Fall, in addition to being the time of year when the leaves change and the weather turns mild, is the beginning of Flu Season.

I’m sick. Not fever-sick, but I feel extremely yucky. I’m making up a batch of chicken soup right now. I always add extra chicken to my soup recipe. It makes a richer broth and there’s leftover chicken that I can use for another dish.

Here’s my recipe…….

Chicken Soup

*2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
*1 cup onions, diced
*1  & 1/2 cup celery, chopped
*1 & 1/2 cup carrots, sliced into thin rounds
*5 cloves of garlic, chopped fine
*2 Bay leaves
*1 teaspoon fresh oregano
*1 teaspoon fresh sage
*2 teaspoons kosher salt
*1 teaspoon ground pepper
*6 cups water
*1 cup tomato juice, I use the spicy-hot or subsitute 1 small can tomato sauce
*5 chicken breasts, or equivalent amount of other cut of chicken
*1  & 1/2 cups cooked rice

1. Pour oil in pan heated to medium.
2. Saute onion, celery, and carrots until crisp-tender.
3. Add garlic, bay leaves, and herbs. Saute lightly.
4. Add water, juice, salt, and pepper. Stir well.
5. Add chicken, cover. Raise heat to medium high, lower heat to medium when it reaches a boil.
6. Simmer for 2 hours.
7. At 2 hours, pull cooked chicken from the pot.
8. Shred the chicken and return to the pot.
9. Add cooked rice. Stir.

*I add a few dashes of hot sauce to my soup bowl.

Image credit: Sxc.hu