Kick It Immune Boosting Chicken Soup

Highland Hedy's Note:

This is a hearty, spicy chicken soup that will give your immune system a huge boost and (in my opinion) kick any cold or flu!!!!! It does have a bite!! I cook this up at the sign of a cold and it does the trick. You can opt not to use the chilli - however Chilli gives your metabolism a hit and also shakes up any nasty mucus on your chest.

• Total Time: 2 hrs 20 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 2 hrs

Ingredients:

Servings: 8

• 1 roasting chicken , skin, bones, the whole deal
• 2 large onions
• 10 garlic cloves
• 10 g fresh gingerroot (use to taste)
• 2 chilies (discard seeds for less heat)
• 2 stalks celery
• 2 carrots
• 1 cup diced sweet potatoes (or both) or 1 cup parsnip (or both)
• 1 cup shiitake mushroom
• 1 cup soup mix
• pearl barley
• red kidney beans
• split peas
• black-eyed peas
• green lentil
• 1 ½-2 liters chicken stock

Directions:

1. Dice onions, chilli, ginger and sweet potato/parsnip.
2. Dice or crush garlic.
3. Slice celery, carrots.
4. Wash chicken inside and out and place into a large stock pot.
5. Put all ingredients into the pot and cover with chicken stock.
6. Bring soup to the boil, then simmer for approx 2 - 2.5 hours or until the chicken falls of the bone.
7. (I use a pressure cooker to cook mine for approx 1 hr).
8. Pull chicken out of soup and discard all bones and large clumps of fat.
9. Return chicken meat to soup.
10. For a variation, try adding a ham hock to the ingredients as well!
11. This chicken soup does have a bite, but it it will sweat out all those nasty cold bugs!
12. Enjoy!

Reviews

[Chef #817860]

Sooo good. I didn't have pearl barley or green lentils. I discarded all the seeds of the chiles, but I would recommend leaving some in for extra flavor. Also, I didn't know what soup mix to use, so I chose a chicken noodle packet and sifted the mix into the soup. I used dried shitake mushrooms b/c that's all I had, I would either get fresh ones or skip that ingredient next time. Maybe substitute another mushroom. I used both sweet potato and parsnip, delicious. Next time I will chop the vegetables rather than dice, and add more garlic and leave in some chile seeds and spice. Yummy. Thanks!