Free Recipe Friday: The BEST Chicken Soup

This is one of those recipes that I swore I would never share. It is technique-heavy and chock full of surprising secrets, but taking time with this one really makes the difference. And, it's fairly cheap and filling.

This is the perfect food to feed someone who's got a cold.

THE BEST CHICKEN SOUP

- serves 6

- prep time: 10 minutes

- cooking time: 90 minutes-2 hours

Essential Equipment

* large stock pot

* large burner on the stove

* paper towels

* baking sheet

* sturdy tongs

Ingredients

* 6 chicken thighs, bone-in & skin-on

* one large yellow onion or 2 medium yellow onions, peeled and quartered

* 4 carrots, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces

* 4 celery stalks, cut into 1 inch pieces

* 2 cloves of garlic, whole

* one bay leaf

* 2 tsp of fresh thyme or 1 tsp of dried thyme

* 1 tsp of fresh rosemary or ½ tsp of dried rosemary

* 2 Tbsp of kosher salt in a small bowl

* 2 tsps freshly ground black pepper

* 3 Tbsp olive oil

* 5-6 cups of water

* 1 Tbsp ketchup

* large wire-mesh strainer

Basic Summary: Sear the chicken, add veggies and spices, add water, cook and enjoy.

1. Place stock pot over medium-high heat and add 2 Tbsp of olive oil.

2. Line a baking sheet with 2 layers of paper towels. Place chicken thighs on paper towels w ith the skin facing up and cover with 2 more sheets of paper towels. Pat the chicken completely dry.

3. Rub or brush 1 Tbsp of oil on the skin side of the chicken and sprinkle with salt from the small bowl (having a separate bowl of salt reduces the chance of cross-contamination; you definitely don’t want raw chicken drippings in your box of salt!).

4. By this time, your oil should be hot. You will know it’s ready when it just begins to smoke.

5. Using the tongs, place the chicken breasts skin-side-down in the oil in one layer. If they don’t all fit, then get a bigger pot or reduce the recipe for 4). Sprinkle the backsides of the chicken with more kosher salt and pepper. Let the chicken sear in the pan 7-10 minutes. Flip the chicken and sear the backside for only 4-5 minutes (Note: you will only flip the chicken once. The chicken only sticks to the pan until it forms a crust; you might be tempted to fiddle with the chicken because you think it will burn, but as long as you watch the time, it won’t).

6. Add onions, celery, carrots, bay leaf, thyme, rosemary to the pan and stir a couple of times to distribute the olive oil and chicken drippings. Cook for 2-3 minutes. Add garlic cloves and stir once more.

7. Warm the water in the microwave until it is hot. Add water to stock pot while scraping the bottom of the pan to deglaze (deglazing gets all of the amazing concentrated seared chicken flavor unstuck from the bottom of the pan).

8. Bring the soup to a boil, put a lid on, reduce the heat to medium low and let simmer for 90 minutes.

9. Remove every bit of chicken from soup and let rest. Pour soup through strainer and then put back in the stock pot and turn heat to medium. Add 1 Tbsp ketchup.

10. Remove bay leaf from strainer and put all veggies back into soup.

11. Using two forks (and a bit of caution), pull the chicken from the bones and put back in soup.

12. Simmer for 10-20 minutes, salt and pepper to taste and serve.

Last note: If you like your chicken soup with rice or noodles, cook them separately and add right before you serve. If you try to cook them in the soup, you’ll end up with a big squishy mess.

Enjoy!