Crock Pot Chicken Soup

Simple. Super yummy. A new family favorite.

Crock Pot Chicken Soup:

2 onions, chopped
2-3 carrots, cleaned and sliced
3 celery stalks, sliced
2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/4 tsp. dried thyme
3 TBSP parsley
1 2-3 pound fryer chicken, cleaned
4 cups of water

Put all ingredients in Crock Pot in the order listed above. Cook on low for 8-10 hours (or high for 4-6). One hour prior to serving, remove chicken from Crock Pot and let cool slightly. Remove skin and discard and pull meat from carcass and return to Crock Pot. Serve hot with garlic bread and a salad.

Enjoy!

Thai Coconut Chicken Soup

Back when we lived in Boise, one of my favorite restaurants was this Thai place called (appropriately) "Thai Cuisine" lol. They have this coconut soup that I absolutely love, but I have never even considered trying it because it has ingredients like lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, and galangal. Not only would I not know where to find these ingredients here, I never would even try because I'd only use them for this one soup. So I've just been going without. Until last night. I saw someone using regular similarly-flavored ingredients in another Asian soup and I was like, "Hey, I could do that!" So I came up with the following, which was surprisingly CLOSE. It wasn't exactly the same, but the whole family loved it nonetheless and I will just keep working on the flavor balance to make it perfect.

Coconut Chicken Soup:

2 chicken breasts, cooked and cut-up into 1-inch pieces
2 cups chicken stock (I used homemade)
2 cups coconut milk
1 onion, cut in half and sliced into strips
3 cups button mushrooms, quartered
8 slices fresh ginger, peeled
1 tablespoon chili paste
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
juice of 1 lemon
olive oil

1) Drizzle a little olive oil in the bottom of a soup pot, heat over medium heat. Add the onions and cook about 2-3 minutes.
2) Add the stock, coconut milk, mushrooms, ginger, chili paste, basil and pepper and simmer for 10 minutes.
3) Add the chicken and simmer another 5 minutes.
4) Add the lemon juice and serve hot.

Enjoy!