Chloe’s Virus Killing Chicken Soup

A few days (week or so?) ago I posted on Facebook that I was making Chloe’s Virus Killing Chicken Soup.  Not unexpectedly, I was asked for the recipe.

Chloe is an amazing woman and I am so blessed to have “met” her on a couple of forums and to be “friends” with her on Facebook.  I’m linking to Chloe’s recipe on her blog:  Chloe’s Virus Killing Soup.  You’ll want to read her original recipe because she includes veggies that I haven’t used.   

I did a swagbuck search to see if anybody else had posted Chloe’s recipe and I found this and this.

So now that you know where it came from let’s talk about where I took it.

Tess’s Variation of Virus Killing Soup:

Step One:

One chicken
Appx 20 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 Tbs salt
Cayenne pepper (to taste.Chloe says she uses about 1 tsp.  I don’t know how much I use.  At least a tsp maybe a tsp 1/2 to 2 tsp)
Fresh ground pepper

In a large soup pot place whole rinsed chicken, garlic and seasonings. Add water to cover chicken completely.   Chloe likes to use organic chicken broth in place of some of the water but I use just water and still get a great chicken broth. I like to bring the water to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer until the chicken is done.  I cook it until it’s wanting to start falling off the bone.   Remove chicken and drain (but reserve!!) the broth.  Set the chicken aside to cool.  You’ll need the broth for the next step.

Step Two:

1 large onion (coarsely chopped or sliced)
1 fennel bulb (sliced thin) (also known as anise)
1-2 leeks (sliced thin)
4-6 stalks of celery (coarse chopped)
1 large red pepper chunked
1/2 lb. (or about 6) carrots sliced
2 tbs olive oil
1/2 C good White Wine (I use one of those single serve bottles that come in 4 packs at the grocery store so I think it’s more of a full cup.  If you don’t want to use wine you can just omit it.)

Saute veggies in oil in a large soup pot until onions are just transparent.  Add wine and simmer for 3-5 minutes. After simmering in wine add broth to cover veggies.  If you do not have enough of broth from step 1 you can use canned or boxed broth.  I bring the broth to a boil, then I reduce heat and simmer until the veggies are just barely tender.  Then I add:

Step Three:

about 1/2 or so head of cabbage  (Cabbage is rich in vitamin C!) chopped into bite size pieces
1 to 2 zucchini sliced
1-(14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes
1 (12 oz can) V8 or other tomato juice.  (Chloe listed 1-2 cans tomatoes but we found we liked the tomato flavor from the juice but Tailorbear preferred less diced tomatoes in her bowl so feel free to just use diced tomatoes)

When all the veggies are tender I add in the chopped chicken and add salt and pepper to taste.   I love serving this with French bread.   You can add other veggies if you like or omit what you don’t have on hand.  

I have made a vegetarian version of this soup.   I start with with boxed organic NON Chicken Chicken broth (from Imagine) so I omit step 1.   I mince the garlic instead of chopping it and I add it to the veggies while sauting.   Sometimes I omit the wine when doing my veggie version.   After sauting the veggies with the garlic, I add the boxed NonChicken Chicken broth and I add the red pepper.  Continue as in steps 2 and 3 but of course I don’t add chopped chicken <grin>.

I have also done a “short cut” version where I start with a rotisserie chicken.  I start by removing the chicken from the bones and throwing the bones and skin in a soup pot with boxed organic chicken broth, chopped garlic and cayenne pepper.  I bring it to a boil reduce heat and then simmer for about 30 minutes.  I then proceed the same as steps 2 and 3.   My favorite (and I think the most effective for killing viruses) is the making broth from scratch with a whole chicken but the other two variations are very tasty and still full of immune boosting goodness!