Super Easy, Flavor Full, Homemade Chicken Soup

Using Only Six Ingredients

THM E 

Chicken soup has always seemed like a luxury food to me. I remember my mom making Mrs. Grass soup on snow days and Campbell’s Chicken Noodle on sick days, and the way it seemed to warm my bones and ward off the chill outside was a magical luxury I will never forget.

It seemed so unattainable for me to be able to re-create that feeling as I started my own home and family. How could I possibly duplicate a feeling that good for my own kids???

I needed it to be healthy, first of all, because there’s no sense in gaining weight from a soup, and I wanted to be able to say “I made it from scratch,” so I knew it had no chemicals or preservatives or added naughty things.

But I also needed it to taste good because, well, food is life, and food that doesn’t taste good is just not good.

So I didn’t really think that it was possible to achieve both at the same time.

One Saturday afternoon, I knew I was going to be home and I was planning on putting some chicken wings in the outdoor wood smoker. It is our favorite way to eat chicken wings without getting fat on fried ones, so I was ready to fill that smoker with every piece of chicken I had. If you’re gonna turn it on, ya better make the most of it, amiright????

The wings only filled half the smoker and I still had room for more, so I grabbed some Split Chicken Breasts I had in the freezer and threw those in too. In the past, I have put whole chickens in there to smoke, and though they always taste delicious, it seems there is a lot of waste and mess that goes along with them. For just a little more per pound, the split chicken seemed a good compromise.

All of the chicken got washed and then doused with a good layer of Applewood Rub. This was before I realized we only had Peach Wood Chips left for the smoker, but added flavor means better tasting, right? (Fingers crossed.)

Anyways, it was ALL delicious, and it smelled even more amazing.

But we had chicken for dayssssss and we were getting sick of it. (Not the kind of “unthankful” sick of it, but the kind where you think about what’s for dinner and remember leftover chicken wings and you aready said that so many times you kinda get a lump in the pit of your stomach instead of excited any more… that kind of sick of it.)

So I didn’t want to waste the split chicken breasts by letting them get spoiled, or go to all this work serving them for just an “okay” dinner that we tolerated, so I decided today.was.THE.day.

In the chicken went in the instant pot, and all went the rest of the ingredients. And it was the.best.

You can do this recipe with any kind of chicken, so don’t be afraid if you have something else on hand. Just toss that in the instant pot along with the rest of the ingredients, and you will still have the most amazing soup, you will almost feel guilty calling it homemade because it was so easy. Let me show you how.

I’m calling this a six ingredient recipe because I’m assuming you all have salt and pepper on hand, and six sounds like less hassle than eight. It is. Grab those shakers for right before we close the lid on the insta pot, and we will be good.to.go. I’m also calling the Dreamfields pasta optional because it really is not necessary. Don’t get me wrong, I am a pasta lover through and through, but this soup does not need it. (And the day I made this batch, the kids actually forgot to turn on the stove to boil the water, so we were almost late for church and went without the noodles that night. There were zero complaints. So I’m calling it optional.)

Our Super Easy, Flavor Full, Homemade Chicken Soup
Serves 8 with leftovers, especially with Dreamfields added.

2 Tbl minced garlic
10 cubes chicken bouillon
1 onion, minced
1 bag celery stalks
1 pound bag of carrots
3 split chicken breasts, already smoked or baked in oven.
Optional:
1 Box of your favorite kind of Dreamfields pasta
Assumed:
Salt (Himalayan is my favorite.)
Pepper (We use a grinder for peppercorns, but any pepper you like will work.)
Water

What to do:

Pour the water right in to your instant pot. I ended up using 10 cups of water for this batch by the end. For each cup of water, I added 1 chicken bouillon cube in to the instant pot as well. If you don’t have cubes, you can use teaspoonfuls of the crushed stuff.

Then I laid the gorgeous chicken pieces right in the bottom of the pot full of water and bouillon.

Then, I got to chopping the veggies.

Each one of the celery, carrots and onion got hand-chopped enough to go in to the food chopper, and I kept chopping in the electric food chopper until the pieces were the size we like.

The trick was to make sure the veggie pieces were small enough to not jam the chopper. I tend to make the veggies really small though, since my foster babies usually get freaked out by too many veggies and different-looking foods, so it’s better to keep it simple, keep it small… and rope them in with the taste to win them over.

I kept putting all chopped veggies straight into the instant pot, right on top of the chicken. The onion literally got minced (and I mean minced) last, and I scraped all the celery and carrot bits that were left with it right into the pot as well.

Once all your veggies are loaded in there, add the garlic and salt and pepper. Garlic is a powerful health tool, one that literally cleanses your blood when you eat it. We love garlic, and the way it makes the kitchen smell. (We also have a family rule that when one of us eats garlic, we all have to, so we can’t blame each other for the garlic breath afterwards…)

All the goodness of veggies, garlic, salt and pepper should look something like this right before you’re ready to go. It should already be smelling like some goodness, too…

This is basically the end of the road for cooking for you. Put that lid on, and tell your machine that you are cooking a soup/broth.

Most machines will take 25 minutes or so, and you do NOTHING during that time. Just kidding. I mean, you can do nothing if you want, but you probably have something to do. I brewed a tea and prayed to God that this would turn out all right so I could share this post with you. I also helped one child with homework and another with tying their shoes and another with the upcoming Christmas program at church. If you want your Dreamfields to go with your soup, this would be a good time to fill that pot with water and salt it.

Y’all, it started smelling so good.

The whole house did.

I’m sure it was the garlic and onion and warm feeling on the cold day, but the Applewood rub with the Peach smoked wood smell certainly didn’t hurt.

And when the timer went off on the instant pot, the soup was gorgeous.

It took less than five minutes to shred all that chicken, and if you have never done that, fear not: all that means is that you took a fork and stuck it in the chicken, then another fork to pull it apart.

Because you used a pressure cooker, it literally falls off the bone.

Grab the bones as they come clean, and let that soup sit until you’re ready to serve it.

You can add the Dreamfields pasta guilt free, though I always serve it on the side to make sure it never “reheats” and the texture stays nice.

If you’ve already decided you’re going E fuel all the way, you can add some sprouted bread as a side and keep burning that fuel.

We could not get enough of the smell and taste that day, and I am just so glad I could share such easy goodness with you. The total chopping time took no more than ten minutes, and when my youngest foster baby looked up from his bowl and told me it was his “best favorite ever,” it made it all worth it. The entire family raved about it, and I almost felt guilty because the amazement factor was so much more than my hard work. It was too easy!

So let me know your thoughts on this recipe and how it turned out for you, and I will be so glad to hear how you and your family liked it! Happy Soup Season!

Love,
Tara

Disclaimer: any of the clickthroughs you find on my pages are links to products that I have used and love and trust. I may make a small commission on anything you purchase on the other side of the link, so please know it will go to fund my crazy projects, wild ideas and writing habits. It will not cost anything extra for you. Thank you for your love and support!