Chicken soup for the sinus-congested soul 🍜

A side-quest for soup.

Hello and welcome back to Five Things I Ate! This week, after fighting a week-long sinus infection, I bring you a soup recipe, as this is all I can muster. Read past posts here, and please follow my Instagram, @fivethingsiate.

It’s dangerous to go alone this cold/flu/allergy/COVID season!

Here, take this:

CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP was added to your backpack! Wow, so warm and nourishing!

To complete the CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP sidequest, follow the instructions below:

Old-Fashioned Chicken Noodle Soup with Stelline 🌟

Serves 4

This recipe is adapted from a copy/pasted version sent by a coworker when I asked people for their sick day soup recipe. I think the original is from America’s Test Kitchen, but I will never know, because I am paywalled (although I do think their recipes are worth paying for, I just have too many subscriptions!). I found another version here from WSKG/PBS.  Anyways, I changed it a bunch so just follow my instructions below.

This is the quintessential Sick Day Chicken Noodle Soup. I don’t ever bother buying broth or stock at the grocery because it’s heavy and doesn’t fit in my backpack which means it’s bad for side questing. As you may have gleaned by now, most of my ingredient decisions are based on how many groceries I can carry. I’m sure it’d taste richer with broth instead of water, but I like how light and clear and delicate-ly herby this soup is. 

My favorite pasta to use is gluten free Stelline from Jovial which you can get at Whole Foods, because it’s small and cute and star-shaped. I’m not gluten-free, I just like rice and if my pasta is made of rice all the better. I also find the gluten-free pasta doesn’t get as mushy, which is good for leftovers. You can feel free to use the gluten-full version.

Ingredients

• 1 ½ pounds bone-in chicken breasts and/or thighs (I used a little over 1.5lbs of bone-in skin on organic chicken breasts from Whole Foods)

• Salt and pepper

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil

• 8 cups water (or chicken broth)

• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped

• 1 large carrot, peeled and cut into ½-inch pieces

• 1 celery rib, cut into ½-inch pieces

• 2 sprigs fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried

• 1 bay leaf

• 5 oz Stelline pasta

• Lots of fresh minced parsley

Directions

1. Pat chicken dry with paper towels and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. 

2. Heat oil in a Dutch oven or large pot over medium-high heat until it shimmers. 

3. Add chicken and brown for 5 minutes, flip, and brown for 5 more minutes.

4. Meanwhile, chop the veggies.

5. When chicken is browned, add 8 cups water, onion, carrot, celery, thyme sprigs, bay leaf, and another pinch salt, scraping up any browned bits. 

6. Bring to boil, cover, and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 20 minutes.

7. Discard thyme sprigs and bayleaf, and transfer the chicken to a plate, let it cool a bit. Turn the heat down all the way, just so it keeps warm. 

8. Shred chicken and discard skin and bones.

9. Return soup to boil over medium-high heat and add pasta. Cook, uncovered, until pasta is tender, about 10 minutes, stirring often.

10. Add chicken and lots of fresh diced parsley and cook until chicken is warmed through, about 2 minutes. 

11. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve.

12. To make ahead, you can do everything up to adding the pasta, and refrigerate up to 2 days. When ready to eat, bring to boil and add pasta and finish with parsley.

13. Enjoy :)

P.S. If you make this recipe, please let me know how it turned out! You can reply directly to this email.