Root Vegetable Chicken Soup (from scratch)

Do you want to really impress your girlfriend or wife, or just as importantly yourself? My friends, making chicken soup from scratch is too easy not to give this a try. And here I am to help you out

So what do you need? Obviously raw chicken, and then your choice of onions (scallions in this case), rutabagas, carrots, cabbage, and other vegetables of your choice (or mine). You’ll also want to add in pasta.
This is an easy one dish meal and with the exception of the cutting board, you won’t need to use anything else. Because cleaning is never fun.

So step one is to pour about 3 cups of water and put it on medium heat. It will boil in time, and you will need that time to slice up the (raw) chicken. The bonus in that is you get to use a big knife to do it. And I do love knives. I generally like to use boneless and skinless chicken thigh fillets. Be sure to scrape off the obvious fat, as you don’t need that around your waist. Don’t worry there will be more than enough for flavor. Cut the chicken one by one into small size bits, less than ½ inch. By the time you cut the chicken apart your water should be boiling. If you want, at this point add just tablespoon of olive oil and a small amount of salt. Wow that’s a long step one…

Next let the chicken cook slowly and cut up the rutabagas, and carrots and onions. You’ll want them to be cooked slowly so they come out tender and soft.

Now that the chicken is getting close to done (about 10 minutes, you can add in the dry pasta. I used angel hair pasta, and rather than break it up in two, I broke it in thirds. I want soup, not spaghetti here. There will be enough water to cook the pasta in. But you can always add in more water. At this point you can add the spices in… the chicken stock and fat will give it a superb flavor and the spices will top it off. I used cumin, curry, and real garlic for the kick, and rosemary, dill weed and basil for the chicken.

After the pasta is moving (not stiff) you can add in the vegetables and lower the temperature. Now all you have to do is wait. In fact just keep it on the lowest setting of warm for about 30-45 minutes so that all the flavors blend and the vegetables become saturated and soft. Trust me it will be perfect after that. This recipe should give you enough for 4 servings.