Christmas Cold Cures: Chicken & Cookies

Left out another C — vitamin C (but that would have made a really long post title).

Grenville has been dealing with  a pre-holiday cold this week complete with drippy nose, clogged ear drums and coughs. Yesterday, he donned his most comfortable sweatshirt and gave in to a (very long) daytime nap. Doesn’t he look comfy stretched out on the futon?

Using  the remains of last night’s dinner, a store-bought rotisserie chicken, I made a timeless old-fashioned remedy — Chicken Soup. There are lots of recipes around, but in the past few years, I haven’t followed any specific one. It seems (to me) that making chicken soup is nearly foolproof. And while I have followed cookbook and internet recipes, now I wing it. No pun intended, not even a fowl joke (whoops).


So, without listing any exact measurements, here’s MOST of the main ingredients (others can be added): chicken carcass with meat left on, carrots, celery, onion, salt pepper, bouillon (cube or powder), low-sodium chicken broth. Other added spices included parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme (just like the song, a great memory jogger). My seasoning choice was this mixture sent by blog friend, Tammy, Sweet Southern Happiness. THANKS!
Place carcass in large pot, cover with water (6-8 cups), add sliced onion, celery leaves, bouillon, and seasonings. Let come to a boil, lower heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes until meat falls off bones. Remove carcass, cool before cleaning off chicken. Add large carton of chicken broth and can of beef broth OR just use only chicken broth (personal choice here).
While waiting for pot to boil, peel and cut up 3-4 carrots and celery stalks (more or less as you prefer). Add to the pot with the reserved chicken. If needed, you can add any leftover chicken from last night’s dinner (we had some). Cook on low heat until veggies are softened AND add other veggies of your choice — corn, string beans, peas, etc. MY choice was frozen corn and scallions.


Final step, add pasta or rice (your choice OR not) and cook directly in soup. We prefer orzo, a short-cut pasta shaped like a large grain of rice.

Serve with a salad and/or fresh bread (Grenville baked a loaf yesterday). ENJOY even if you (hopefully) don’t have a cold.


And, the COOKIE Cure are these chocolate, chocolate chip mint and butterscotch chip cookies that Grenville baked the other day.YES, he told me that they made him feel better.