All-Natural Homemade Chicken Soup

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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

First we are preparing the chicken. I buy the smaller organic chickens from Trader Joe’s so one chicken is perfect for a pot. In your CrockPot, add 3 chopped celery stalks (I don’t get crazy with the chopping because we aren’t using these veggies for the actual soup), 3 chopped carrots, and 1 chopped onion. Place these in the bottom of your CrockPot. Now, wash your chicken inside and out. If you buy a whole chicken with the giblets still inside, those will need to be removed. If you are pregnant (like me) and doing this yourself, try not to vomit at the sight/feel of raw chicken.

(I just got home from CrossFit)

When you’re done rinsing, season your chicken inside and out with salt, pepper, and Adobo (or whatever seasoning you are using). Place the bird in the CrockPot breast up and set your CrockPot to cook on low for 6 hours.

6 hours later, there will be yummy smelling broth in the bottom of your CrockPot and your chicken will be DONE. Leave the veggies/yummy broth in the CrockPot, and remove the bird for carving. I place my chicken in a long Pyrex baking dish for ease. Cut off all the meat from the bone and separate the meat into a bowl. This won’t take long because the meat LITERALLY falls right off the bone. The carcass will completely fall apart, and that’s okay. Save all the junk that’s separated from the meat.

Try to prevent a hungry dog from eating chicken pieces.

Try NOT to give in to hungry dog when he gives you the sad face.

Once you have your chicken removed from the carcass..

You’re left with the remains of the carcass, and the broth and veggies in the CrockPot.

Now, dump all the junk that’s not meat, plus the broth and veggies in the CrockPot into your large stock pot. Add some water until it’s all covered (I don’t measure! not surprising), and sometimes I’ll even add half a carton of Trader Joe’s Low Sodium Organic Chicken Broth. Cover the pot, bring it to a boil on high heat, and then let it simmer for about an hour.

While the broth is cooking, chop up your remaining carrots, celery, onion, and potato into bite sized pieces.

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!