Grandma's Chicken Soup

Today is cold and rainy! The perfect day for a pot of soup that fills your home with a wonderful comfort aroma. We will add an update of zucchini noodles at the end!

If you are my age you probably recall a magical soup that warded off colds and made you feel warm from your head to your toes. Not sure if it was the delicious soup or the love that also went into that pot. Let's not lose this heritage recipe - teach your children that old fashioned chicken soup heals what ails you. It is super simple and uses just 5 ingredients.

EVERYONE should know how to make chicken soup!

Ingredients

• One 2 1/2 to 3 pound whole chicken, or 5 whole leg-thighs - I decide based on price
• 6 large carrots, peeled and left whole
• 4 celery stalks
• 1 large onion, cut into quarters
• 2 tablespoons Better than Bouillon Chicken base, or four chicken bouillon cubes
• 10 whole black peppercorns
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt

Instructions

• Get out the big pot that came with your cookware set. The one you only use occasionally. Rinse it out and add the chicken, carrots, celery, onion, peppercorns, bay leaf and chicken base.
• Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer for 3 hours, until rich and flavorful. You'll know when its perfect!
• Using a large slotted spoon or kitchen tongs, remove the chicken and and the carrots to a large bowl.
• Once its cooled down a little, pour the stock through a large wire strainer into a smaller pot pressing on the cooked vegetable solids to extract as much flavorful juice as possible.
• If you don't have another pot, strain into a large bowl and transfer back to the original pot.
• Using your soup ladle, scoop off and discard as much of the chicken fat from the surface as you can.
• Slice the cooked carrots and add to the pot.
• When cool, remove the chicken from the bones, break into chunks and add to the soup. I usually divide and use half of the chicken for soup and the rest for chicken salad.
• Soup can be prepared to this point in advance and chilled.

To Serve

• Bring soup to a boil.
• Add 2 cups of raw zucchini zoodles and simmer 10 minutes, until softened.
• Ladle on the broth and vegetables.
• Add Parmesan cheese over your bowl of hot soup. (optional but what my mother and grandmother did and it is absolutely yummy)