Perhaps I spoke too quickly yesterday. This is feeling like regular full-blown cold. I stayed home again today, but I think I am over the worst of it and expect to be back tomorrow.
By special request, here’s instructions for making chicken soup, Xy style. This is simple, crude and effective.
Take a bunch of veggies and chop them up. Anything you like will do, and it’s good to change up for variety if you make this frequently; the only constant Xy insists on are carrots. This time we also had potatoes, green peppers, corn and plenty of garlic. Chop ’em up and give them a quick sauté at the bottom of a large pot. Then add a bunch of water and a whole chicken. Xy says it has to be whole because the healing power is in the bones. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for two hours. Remove the chicken, let it cool a bit, then pull the meat off the bones, shredding while you return it to the pot. Give the heart and liver to your cat. Add a cup of rice or noodles to the soup, adding more water if necessary, and season with salt and/or Tony’s, and simmer for another thirty minutes or so. The amount of water is variable depending on how thick or soupy you like it, but keep in mind rice absorbs water like a frat boy absorbs beer.
That’s it. Enjoy.
Footnotes: This soup is scientifically proven to get you better quicker. Unless you’re a vegetarian, in which case it might make you sicker. Also the rice or noodles are optional.
Sounds good. Thanks for sharing. Always needed a good chicken soup recipe and this is it. My mom used to add ginger also. See you during Samedi Gras.
That’s surely a new orleanian’s explaination of things!
I enjoy the “rice absorbs water like a frat boy absorbs beer” part!
A chicken in every pot. Thanks for putting that up! I am going to try the soup this weekend.
It’s similar to the Million Vegetable Soup I got over the flu with:
Take a whole bunch of different vegetables, chop them up fine, saute, add seasoning, beef broth (and a little wine if you are so inclined) and cook for a long time.
I humbly suggest Miso soup as an alternative to chicken soup (btw, Maurice Sendak’s Chicken Soup with Rice is a personal fave despite its meat content). Your vegan and vegetarian readers surely know about it already, but miso soup is loaded with boffo health benefits and comes in instant packet form (you could be old school about it, but if you’re sick why bother).
As the website linked to below says, “The fighting prowess and health benefits of chicken soup pale by comparison when placed side by side with a real contender, hailing from faraway Japan. Its name is Miso Soup…”
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/31554/the_health_benefits_of_miso_soup_japanese.html?cat=5
Thanks DSB. I can’t recall the last time we had miso at home. Gonna have to add that to my repertoire.