Sicilian Chicken Soup

A hearty spicy full bodied chicken noodle soup, perfect for cold nights, or people with colds! This recipe was inspired by Carrabas Mama Mandola's Sicilian Chicken Soup. My friend and I absolutely love it, but we live too far away from a Carrabas to have it more than once a year or so. We tried other "copycat" recipes we found online, but none of them were even close. So through trial and error we created this recipe. Hope you enjoy it and we'd love to hear what you think!

• Ready In: 2 hrs
• Serves: 6-8

Ingredients

• 3  medium potatoes, diced
• 1  large yellow onion, diced
• 6  carrots, diced
• 1  bell pepper, diced
• 5  stalks celery, diced (including leafy tops)
• 1  tablespoon garlic
• 1 (14 ounce) can Italian stewed tomatoes
• 5  quarts  chicken stock (not broth, stock)
• 2  chicken bouillon cubes
• 2  bay leaves
• 1  teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1⁄4 cup Italian parsley, chopped
• 1  rotisserie chicken, shredded
• 1  lb macaroni
• 1  tablespoon olive oil
•  salt and pepper
•  grated parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Saute onion, potatoes, carrots, bell pepper, and celery in a large soup pot.
2. Add stock, garlic, tomatoes, bouillon cubes, bay leaves, salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper.
3. Simmer 2 hours, stirring occasionally.
4. Remove bay leaves.
5. Divide soup in half, leave half in the soup pot and puree the other half in a food processor.
6. Add the pureed soup back to the soup pot and stir. Add shredded chicken and parsley.
7. Simmer 30 minutes.
8. While the soup is simmering, boil a pot of water and cook the macaroni according to the directions on the bag. Drain and toss with olive oil until lightly coated.
9. Ladle soup into individual bowls and add macaroni to taste. Add parmesan cheese to taste and enjoy! (number of servings is approximate).