Chicken Soup

This is one of my favorite things to make. It's easy and it uses up leftovers! I often make baked chicken, so I normally boil the chicken when we're done with it to make my own broth to freeze and use for soups, but one could certainly use canned chicken broth as well. Also, any of these ingredients can be modified to suit your taste. I will honestly toss in whatever I think sounds good. I've used spinach, kale, and broccoli in the past. I've also substituted the corn and potatoes for tortellinis. Yum!!

Ingredients:

Chicken broth (I use about 6 cups. If you are using canned broth, you might want to substitute with a cup of water to cut down on salt.)

1 small onion diced

1 cup corn (frozen, canned, or fresh if you recently had corn on the cob)

2 medium potatoes

1 cup sliced carrots

2 large celery stalks sliced

1 cup green beans (frozen or fresh)

2 cloves garlic diced

2 cups chicken (optional)

1TBSP olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Saute onion, carrots, celery, and garlic in large pot with olive oil for aprox 5 mins

Add broth, potatoes, chicken, salt, pepper and simmer covered until potatoes are soft. (Aprox 10 mins)

Add corn and green beans and simmer covered for another 5 mins.

To make your own chicken stock, pick off as much meat from the bones as you can and set aside. Boil entire chicken (along with drippings) in a pot of water. I often add an onion and some celery. Boil for an hour or more! Strain out the broth and freeze to store after returning chicken pieces to the broth. (optional)