Chicken Soup Homestyle

A climate change inevitably brings on the common cold - the irritating feeling you get around the throat and then a stuffy or sometimes runny nose. 

In effect, such colds completely wear off in just about 7 days - whether you treat them with medication or not. However, to survive that irritation and feel slightly better there is one yummy remedy - you guessed it right - the Chicken Soup of the "for the soul" variety.

You can google to check how certain amino acids released during the "soup making" effectively help treat the common cold symptoms.

In our home, we simply love this Chicken Clear Soup for its taste as well as healing ability. The homestyle version beats the instant "processed" (read: incl. preservatives) version anytime.

If it looks a little drab, it most certainly tastes heavenly.

Ingredients:

1. Chicken soup pieces / chicken on the bone - 250 gms (simply pick a tray from the cold storage or ask for these at local butchers') - clean the chicken and sprinkle 1/2 tsp salt and keep aside.

2. Ginger and Garlic - chopped roughly

3. Onion - chopped roughly

4. Carrot - chopped roughly 

5. Celery ( i use this optionally - since we don't find it easily) - chop roughly, if using

6. Salt and pepper

7. Butter / Oil - 1 tsp (optional)

8. Lemon juice - 1/2 a lemon

9. Chicken stock cube - 1/4th part - now this ingredient is of the processed variety - so skip if you would - but even a "pinch" of the chicken stock cube transforms the taste into an authentic 5-star variety ;-)

So, chicken stock cube - "Maggi" - 1/4th of a cube is sufficient

10. Water - as much as u like - i use about 1 1/2 ltr.

How to proceed:

Decide whether you want to do the stove top (pot on the stove) method or pressure cooker (faster) method. Accordingly either use a pan or pressure cooker to begin cooking. 

In a pan, take 1 tsp butter / oil (if using) and add chopped ginger and garlic. Now put in the chicken pieces and fry for 1 min., turn the side and fry for another min. Now add onions, carrots and celery (if using). Add all the water, bring it to a boil on high flame and then reduce the flame - if heating on stove (pot) then let it simmer for a good 45 mins. but if its pressure cooker then reduce flame after 3 or 4 whistles and cook for 5 more mins.

Stove pot: 

Remove the froth on top of the soup, switch of the stove, strain entire soup using a sieve and then add salt, pepper to taste, lemon juice and the stock cube (if using). Now retrieve the chicken pieces from the strained stuff and shred the chicken as much as you can. Add these shredded chicken bits to the strained soup. Now return soup to the fire and once boiled - Serve Hot.

Pressure Cooker:

Let the pressure settle. Open the cooker, strain the soup using a sieve, add salt, pepper and lemon juice. Add stock cube (if using). Now retrieve the chicken pieces from the strained stuff and shred the chicken as much as you can. Add these shredded chicken bits to the strained soup. Now return soup to the fire and once boiled - Serve Hot.

This quantity makes approx. 6 full bowl servings of healthy clear chicken soup.

I hope you make it and like it very much. Looking forward to your comments and suggestions, if any.

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