VIRUS KILLING SOUP AKA Oh My Stars, this is the BEST Chicken Soup EVER!

It’s that time of the year again.   It’s finally FALL!  It’s time for pumpkin spice, apple picking, fall leaves, and cold and flu season.  I love everything about fall, well almost everything. I despise, loathe, detest, hate, and in general can’t stand the colds and flu bugs that can invade our homes.  This year, more than ever it seems that there are strange germs and new virus’ everywhere.  To combat that I make Virus Killing Soup that I learned from the Sonlight Homeschool Forums.  This is a soup that has become a family favorite here, we eat it sick or not, it’s that good!  Several people have asked for my recipe, and I always share the original recipe from Chloe’s Virus-Killing Soup but I have tweaked it to suit our tastes.  I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

First I gather all the ingredients.  Then in a large stock pot I throw the chicken, rosemary, thyme, red pepper flakes, a carton of chicken stock, and the garlic.  It is the garlic that gives this soup the flavor.  It is the garlic that is the key to this soup.  It is the garlic that gives me my work out.  WHY?  I crush 35-50 cloves of garlic into this soup.  My forearms get the work out of a lifetime.  BUT, the results are oh so worth it!

This is Garlic.  Make friends with it.  You are going to use a lot of it!

Assembling all the ingredients.

I forgot to show you the chicken, sorry.

Everything getting thrown into the pot.  YUM.

Trust me, the garlic press becomes your best friend!

Now comes the fun part.  For about 30 minutes I let the chicken, herbs, and stock happily boil away. After about 30 minutes, I begin to prep and chop all the remaining veggies.  This is my second all time favorite thing about this recipe.  I LOVE munching on all the fresh chopped veggies.

This is  leek.  Before I made this soup, I had never heard of it.  Now, it's one of my all time favorite veggies. 

Chop off the top and tail.

Then chop into little pieces.

Then soak in a bowl of cold water.  Leeks are root veggies, so they are really dirty and need to soak clean.

Wash your carrots and celery.

Then start to happily chop away.

I like my veggies "rough" chopped.  It gives this soup a decidedly homemade flare.

Then chop your celery.  I like to add some of the leaves too.

Looking good right?

Next comes the onions.

And into the pool they go.

Finally chop the fennel.  Cutting the fennel is easy. Chop off the tops, and the bottom peeling off the outer layer.

Don't forget to feed the bunny some fennel tops.  Clemmie loves fennel tops!

Getting close to chopping time, see the outer layer peeling off.

That center circle isn't edible, cut that out and throw into the pool with the other veggies.   

After all the veggies are chopped and prepped, it’s time to work some magic.  While the chicken is still simmering away, it’s time to heat up a skillet and some olive oil and a little butter.  Next I dump all the chopped veggies in and season them with salt, pepper, and parsley.  Then I sauté the veggies until the onions are a translucent color.  Now this is the part in the original recipe that calls for wine.  Robert and I aren’t big drinkers so we’ve had this without wine and with wine.  Having it either way does not in any way change the overall yummy-ness that is this soup.  

While the veggies are happily sautéing in the pot of butter (because we all know that butter makes everything better!!), I remove the chicken and start to debone it.  I also remove the stalks from the rosemary and thyme.  Makes it easier to eat without bones and stems in there ya know!

See, I use butter AND olive oil!

White, fresh, and so pretty.

I love this pretty color that these veggies turn.  This makes me happy.

Working on deboning the chicken.

Now we dump al the veggies and deboned chicken into the pot.  I let the flavors slow simmer for about an hour really mixing and melding together.  Once again I have tweaked this a little and add some noodles to this during the last 15 minutes of cooking.  I have also done this with rice.  Usually I serve this with some flakey bread and we enjoy a yummy meal. 

Back into the pot to swim!!!

Can you taste and smell the deliciousness yet?

Virus Killing Soup Recipe

Ingredients

1 Boiler Chicken or 3-4 chicken thighs                    Red Pepper Flakes

2-3 Quarts Chicken Stock                                     1 Leek

Rosemary                                                               1 Fennel

Thyme                                                                   3-4 Carrots

Salt                                                                       3-4 Celery Stalks

Pepper                                                                  2 TBSP Olive Oil/Butter

15-50 Garlic Cloves                                                         Egg Noodles

Directions

In a large stock pot, add chicken, red pepper flakes, rosemary, thyme, garlic cloves and a quart of chicken stock.  Bring to a boil and boil for approximately 30 minutes.  Meanwhile chop all the remaining veggies and sauté in a large skillet in the olive oil, seasoning to taste.  When chicken is cooked remove from the stock pot and debone.  Add the sautéed veggies and deboned chicken back to the pot.  Simmer on low for about an hour, increasing heat to add noodles if desired.  ENJOY!