If you’re like me, you are watching your weight and looking for ways to eat healthy while still filling up on your favorite cold weather foods. Here’s a recipe for chicken soup that is so good, healthy, and filling, it will warm you from the inside out. I use a crockpot because it is more convenient for me, but feel free to cook it on top of the stove, just adjust the cooking times.
1 whole chicken
32 oz low sodium and/or no MSG chicken broth
10 oz frozen corn
10 oz frozen green beans
1 1/2 cups sliced carrots (can use fresh or frozen)
1 cup sliced celery
20 oz pkg refrigerated potato wedges (recommend Garlic and Herb flavor)
Rinse and clean chicken, then cut into pieces (leg quarters, wings, breast halves, etc.). Place chicken pieces in a 2 1/2 – 3 qt. crockpot and completely cover chicken/fill cooker with broth. Cook on low for 7 hours. Pour contents of slow cooker through a strainer into a large bowl or pot. Put corn, green beans, carrots, celery, and potato wedges into crockpot and cover with strained chicken broth. Cook on high setting for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. While the vegetables and potatoes are cooking, debone and skin the chicken. For the most part it should come right off the bone. Use your hands (or a knife if it is too hot) to break the chicken into bite size pieces and place in the large bowl or pot used for the strained broth. Once the vegetables and potatoes are done, pour contents of slow cooker over chicken and mix just enough to evenly distribute chicken. Enjoy immediately!
If you are looking for something to do with the leftover turkey, you can use that instead of the chicken. Just start with deboning and skinning it. Break it into bite size pieces and put it in the crockpot along with the vegetables and potatoes.
Also note that ingredient amounts are approximate. You can increase or decrease the amount of each vegetable, or exchange it for a different one, based on your personal preferences or the size of your slow cooker. The picky eaters and non-soup lovers in my house all love this. Hopefully yours will, too.
