I was driving home and listening to NPR and caught the tail end of a chef talking about foods we love when we have a cold. Of course she brought up making your own chicken broth and that’s all it took. I stopped at the grocery and picked up all the items needed to make soup for dinner. Her broth sounded very basic, so I had to add a bit more flair. 

How To Make Homemade Chicken Broth

Ingredients:

• One whole organic chicken – Which I found on sale!
• 3 or 4 celery stalks
• 1 red onion
• 5 garlic cloves – I usually always cook with fresh garlic, but decided to use the chopped garlic in a jar. I scooped a couple of spoonfuls in.
• 1 bag of baby carrots – of course you can get the big carrots and cut them.
• 1 lemon
• peppercorns
• sea salt
• smoked paprika
• fresh rosemary
• fresh thyme
• fresh bay leaves

This couldn’t be any easier. I rinsed my chicken and removed the bag of icky stuff. I could have added it to the pot and I’m sure my mother would have, but those chicken parts just gross me out!

I placed my chicken in my Dutch Oven Cast iron pot. I love that thing! Seriously…….everyone should have one. I have a no name brand I picked up at Fred Meyer, and it works great……  but I’d love one of the coveted Le Creuset someday.

I chopped up my onion, celery, and just dumped it in. Scooped a couple of large teaspoons of the chopped garlic from the jar. If you’re using fresh, I’d probably use about 4 or 5 cloves.

I emptied out a small bag of baby carrots. I sliced a lemon and used 2 or 3 slices, then the rest went into my ice water for drinking. 

I placed all the herbs inside the pot. Sprinkled about a tablespoon of sea salt and a tablespoon ofpeppercorns, along with a sprinkle of smoked paprika. Then I snapped a photo with my iphone forinstagram, because it was just so darn pretty!

I filled the pot with water and stopped about 2 inches from the top. Placed it on my burner, brought it to a boil and turned down the heat to medium low.

Continue to simmer for about 2 hours.

When your house is smelling good, turn off the burner and let it cool a little.

I used big tongs to pull my completely cooked chicken out and onto a large platter to be de-boned shredded for soup. 

Here’s where you could just fish out the herbs and lemon,  place some of the chicken back in the pot, along with some pasta…..let it simmer for about 10 min and you’ve got Chicken Noodle soup.

I thought my broth had more fat than I wanted floating on the top and the veggies looked a bit tired and mushy, so I placed a large colander over another large pot, and poured the dutch oven contents into the colander allowing just the broth to fill the pot underneath. I threw out the bulk and cut new veggies for my soup. I also used a broth separator to separate some of the grease.

I added some Rotini Pasta, simmered for about 10 min and served soup!

This is where you could also make Chicken and Dumplings if you’d rather.  Skip the pasta and add drop biscuits to your simmering soup. Cover and cook for about 10 minutes or so. Done!