The dude is home sick from work today, and I can’t think of a single thing that feels better when you’re sick than a warm bowl of chicken noodle soup. I adapted this recipe from my mom (who made this for us growing up) and tweaked a few things to make it more my style. It’s the one recipe that I make where I don’t typically detour from the original recipe too much. It is, after all, a CLASSIC… And like I always say about soups: they’re ALWAYS better the second day, but still great the first day.

 

You will need:

1 Tbs olive oil

1 Tbs butter

2 chicken breast halves (bone in, skin on)… for a short cut add a few cups of chopped rotisserie chicken and add in before lemon juice and herbs

1 medium sized onion

1 clove of garlic smashed and minced

2 medium sized carrots

4 stalks of celery (leaves included)

2 cups dry white wine

1 1/2 cups frozen corn

32 oz of good quality chicken stock (*plus 2 cups of water and 1-2 bouillon cubes if more broth is needed)

A few pinches of red pepper flakes

The juice of 1 lemon

1 cup chopped fresh parsley

1/2 cup chopped fresh chives

2 1/2 cups pasta (cooked until al dente)

Salt

Pepper

 

In a large stock pot, heat oil and butter on medium-high heat. Add salt and pepper to the skin on the chicken breast and add to the pan, skin side down. You want to sear the chicken for about 3 minutes and flip. The chicken should look like this when you turn it.

Sear the other side for another minute or so and remove. Set aside on a plate (the chicken will not be cooked through, you will finish it in the soup later).

Turn off the heat and prepare your veggies if you haven’t already done so. Chop one medium sized onion,  garlic, and the celery (here’s one of those instances where the leaves of the celery are often discarded but shouldn’t be! They add a ton of flavor, so use ’em)

Next, peel and chop your carrots.

Turn the heat on medium and add your veggies, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Saute for about 6-7 minutes, stirring often.

Raise heat to high and add white wine. Let the wine come to a low boil and reduce heat to medium-low. Let the wine cook down for about 4 minutes.

Once the wine has cooked down, add the chicken stock (The amount of stock you add is up to you, I used the amount listed in my ingredients, but you can make it as brothy or not as you like) salt, pepper, and chicken back to the pot.

Raise the heat to medium-high. Once the liquid begins to bubble, reduce the heat to low. Add your corn, cover the pot and let the mixture cook for about an hour.

After one hour, remove the chicken from the pot and set on your cutting board to rest for a few minutes (you do this so that the juices inside the chicken have time to settle and when you cut into it they don’t run all over your board and leave you with dry chicken). While your chicken is resting it’s a good opportunity to skim any unwanted fat off the top of your soup if you’d like.

Once the meat has rested, remove skin and bones (discard skin and bones), and cut meat into bite sized pieces. return to the pot.

Next add lemon juice and herbs.

Stir to incorporate and taste. If it tastes good, but not great then you probably need a little more salt and/or pepper. Distribute your cooked pasta into each bowl and ladle soup over. (By storing noodles separately and adding it to your soup bowls individually you will be sure not to have soggy noodles… if you like your noodles extra soft, then combine and store them together!). Garnish with more fresh herbs as desired and serve with toasted and buttered crostini. Enjoy!

That’s him being all hunky even when sick.