mom’s chicken soup
with fun pasta
This is probably one of the most comforting soups of all time. My mom used to make it at least once per month but with homemade chicken stock. Making your own from scratch looks like so much work — even though I think the chicken tastes better when it comes right off the bone. But why make your own when you can buy it for $2?
To make this soup fun, I added 3 different pasta shapes. I had a bunch leftover, so I decided it would be fun to mix all of them together into one soup!
makes: about 12 cups
ingredients
2 tsps olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 chicken breasts, cubed
5-6 celery stalks, chopped (with leaves)
5-6 celery carrots, chopped
½ cup fresh parsley, chopped
1 bay leaf
64 ounces chicken broth
½ cup ditalini pasta*
½ cup small shell pasta*
½ cup mini wheels pasta*
salt & black pepper, to taste
fresh parsley or sliced scallions (garnish)
*or use 1 ½ cups of your favourite small pasta
directions
step 1 On medium, heat the olive oil in a large pot (or, Dutch oven) until hot. Add the onion and cook till translucent. Add in the garlic and cook for an additional 1 minute. Stir well. At this point, I also like to add in some of the chopped celery leaves because it smells great!
step 2 Add the cubed chicken breast. Season with salt and pepper. Stir occasionally till the chicken looks white on all sides.
step 3 Add the carrots, celery, parsley, chicken stock and bay leaf. Cover the pot and increase the temperature to high until boiling.
step 4 Once boiling, turn the heat down to medium and add the pasta shapes. Cook for 4-6 minutes (or until the pasta is al dente). Remove from heat and serve with fresh parsley or sliced scallions.
