When planning our meals for the week, we try to select items that work well being reheated and eaten at different times. Let's face it, the times have changed and the entire family sitting down at the same time for a meal is a commodity. Many of our meals work great to be eaten at all different times and keep you out of the fast food lines.
I love this soup because it is easy to make and filling. I add a loaf of bread with it, but if your family needs more a sandwich is a great addition. I persoanlly like to pop the Pillsbury french bread in the oven for fresh bread with this soup. This recipe is similar to my chicken pot pie recipe and my grandkids love it. I try to keep it very simple as my husband Kurt prefers to eat like the kids. Hotdogs, Mac & Cheese, you know no interesting flavors :-).
This recipe doesn't have noodles, instead I chose potatoes. But if you prefer noodles, do that, I certainly have. In terms of making this quick and easy I used canned potatoes, if you don't like those (which some people do not), you can cube some potatoes and add them with the carrots and celery. The soup does take longer to cook to make sure the potatoes are cooked all the way through. I would cut the potatoes the same size as the carrots.
I also use a Costco rotisserie chicken. To me the flavor and simplicity of shredding and adding this chicken far outweighs the effort of cooking your own. But again, if you have time to cook it or have left over chicken breast chop it up and throw it in!
Hearty Chicken Soup ~ by Rachel
Prep Time: 20 minutes Cook Time: 40 minutes
4 soup bowl (2 cups) serving size
Ingredients
32 oz Chicken broth
10 oz Cream of Chicken Soup
15 oz Canned Potatoes (or sub noodles of choice)
1/2 Large Rotisserie Chicken (breast & Thigh Shredded)
1 C Fresh Peas (I often use frozen, but Costco had these fresh ones this week)
1/2 Medium size yellow onion
1 Minced garlic clove (I cheat with predone garlic - I use 1t as 1 clove)
1 T Better Than Bouillion Chicken Flavor
2 C Large chopped carrots (this was 4 large carrots)
1 1/2 C Coarse chopped celery
Drizzle of olive oil
Salt & Pepper to taste
Directions:
~ I prefer to chop everything in advance as seen in the photo.
~ Add onion, garlic to pan with olive oil over medium heat 3 minutes.
~ Add carrots and celery and Better Than Bouillion - cook for 5 more minutes.
~ Add 32 oz of chicken broth cover and let it simmer over medium heat for 15 minutes.
~ Add final ingredients. Chicken, peas and potatoes. Let it cook for 5 minutes to heat up.
~ Finally stir in the cream of chicken soup to thicken it up. and continue to simmer for 5 -10 minutes to warm all the way through..
~ Salt and Pepper to taste. Be careful, the bouillon seasoning can be a little salty.
I typically put a loaf of Pillsbury french bread in the oven while the soup is cooking. This soup is also one of my go to items to make during meal prep on a Sunday. It is perfect for the nights I work late. That way dinner is done and easy to heat up when each of us is ready to eat. If I'm honest since it is just Kurt and I at home, this will be 1 dinner for us and 1 lunch for Kate and I during the week. We will do anything to not have to order Jimmy Johns. For those that do not know, our dance studio is in a location where there are very few quick food options if we do not pack our lunch. Jimmy Johns is always the lunch we get when it is 2:00pm and we realize we haven't eaten yet and have teach until later in the evening. Jimmy Johns is our Hangry meal choice!
On a side note, I will use the other half of the chicken for another meal this week. Most likely will make chicken salad or add a jar of gravy (I love William Sonoma Turkey Gravy) and premade mashed potatoes for the win with Kurt!
I have a few favorite kitchen gadgets that I have used when making this recipe. Check them out below. Some of the links are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, Starz will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase.
Plastic Cutting Board
My favorite Chicago Cutlery Knives I seriously cannot cook without these.
Meal Prep Glass Containers This soup filled 4 of these!
Magnetic Dry Erase Meal Planner
If you have not gotten on the meal prep and planning train yet - what are you waiting for?. We will set up a blog about that at a later date. It saves us so much time and money. I WISH I knew this strategy when my kids were young and growing up. I can just recall stopping at the store on the way home multiple times during the week and way over spending on our grocery budget on a regular basis..