Chicken Soup: Benefits and a Recipe

During the winter months, you start to feel a little bleak. It always happens. At some point, you’ll get a cold the flu and by the time you know it, you’re crying out for the summer sun and the chance to bronze your body. But unfortunately, winter is here to stay. It’s the coldest season by far and while it has its bonuses (Christmas and New Year, anyone?!) there’s no doubt that it’s a tough season to navigate. No matter how much you wrap up warm or how thick the extra blanket you put on your bed it, you will no doubt end up sniffly and unwell.

The best type of thing to eat during a period of unwellness is a nice, hearty meal. Forget fast food and sandwiches during winter, because it’s all about making warm food, well. Pies, stews and casseroles and the way to go, with plenty of vegetables to push you back to life quicker. Yet the only problem with making such big meals is that it’s usually a big effort to put together in the first place, and if you’re a bit under the weather do you really want to be home-baking and making? If you’re anything like me, that will be the last thing on your mind. Yet, I do have a solution: soup.

Soup is such an easy thing to make. A lot of the time you will have the ingredients in your house, and if you don’t, you will have ingredients for some kind of soup in your house anyway. It’s a great way to use us all the odds and sods left over from various other meals, and the perfect thing is that there’s no wrong thing to put in soup - it’s the ultimate in simple experimentation and foodie trial and error.

One of the most popular types of soup is chicken. When you’re ill especially, tanking up on some delicious chicken soup has so many different ways it can help make you feel better and aid you in recovering from a nasty cold/flu. Firstly, it’s warm. And when you’re feeling disgusting, be it at home or at work, never underestimate how a warm bowl of soup can bring you back round to the human side. It’s soothing feel also helps your throat from feeling sore and raw. And anything that can do that is OK by me!

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Cooking up a soup to a really hot level produces steam. This temperature that your soup will be cooked and eaten at is so high that it will help loosen up congestion and aid breathing through your nose, as well as helping clear/reduce the chance of congestive headaches caused from any build up during a cold.

On top of the scientific mumbo-jumbo is the fact that soup just warms you up. There’s nothing better than being unwell and sitting in a cold house or a cold bed and trying to warm yourself up no matter how many pairs of socks you put on. Eating a hearty bowl of soup will surely bring you up to a toasty, manageable temperature level.

A Hearty, Homely, Healthy Chicken Soup Recipe

This homemade chicken soup recipe is a family favorite of mine, and for good reason. It's quick, simple, and yummy. You could use a boxed chicken soup, but it's full of preservatives and sodium. Take a few extra minutes to whip this one and it'll sooth your soul all winter long.

What You'll Need:

2 containers of chicken broth or about 30 ounces of homemade broth

1 tablespoon of dried onion or onion powder

1 whole bag of frozen veggies, or 3 cups of freshly chopped ones

2.5 cups of cooked chicken breast, chopped (about 3 breasts)

2 cans of cream of chicken soup (I use the reduced sodium version!)

How to Make:

1. Bring the broth to a boil and then reduce heat to about medium.

2. Add in veggies, can soup, and onion powder. Cook for ten minutes.

3. Add in chopped chicken bits and cook for another ten minutes. 

4. Enjoy!

How to Use Chicken Stock

When we buckle down to make homemade soups, the first ingredient we require is stock. Chicken stock (or beef, vegetable, etc) is made from boiling down the flavors and nutrients from meat scraps, bones, veggies, and spices. Just strain the bits when you're done and you're left with this delicious broth to use in tons of recipes. But what exactly are those recipes? What are the many different ways you can use soup stock besides for soup? 

READ How to Cook Leftovers and Make Them Taste Great

Try These:

-Instead of using water to cook rice, use stock. It adds a yummy flavor!

-Casseroles. Add a bit of stock to amp up the flavoring in any casserole or deep dish.

-Homemade sauces. It's hard to really get a layered taste in homemade sauces. But using stock can help you do that.

-Low fat cream sauces. Things like Alfredo are delicious but really high in fat. You can reduce those fat levels by substituting half the sauce with broth. You still get the flavor but less calories. 

-Chicken dishes. I don't know about you, but chicken and dumplings is one of my favorite winter meals to cook. Having pre-made chicken stock on hand really puts the cherry on this dish.

-Mashed potatoes. My family are totally fine with regular mashed potatoes and butter. But when I add soup stock to them, they go nuts. It makes them creamier and more flavorful.

-Gravy. Everyone is looking for a good gravy recipe this time of year. Not only for Christmas dinner, but for other great comfort food dishes throughout the cold season. Having chicken stock on hand means you don't have to cook any meat to get your base.

-Where I'm from, there's a popular dish called fries, stuffing, and gravy. Having a great chicken stock on hand means that I can make this yummy dish anytime of year, not just when gravy is plentiful. I use the broth to make my stuffing, too!