The Best Superfood Chicken Soup to Cure What Ails You
This chicken soup recipe was originally developed to help me stave off a gross cold. It works to warm your hands, your belly, and get your blood flowing to warm up everything else, too.
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Of course, now, we’re in unprecedented times. So, if you’re feeling sick, please go to the doctor to be tested and quarantine to protect your community.
Chicken Soup and a Free PSA
GO GET YOUR FLU SHOT. The last thing we need is a flu epidemic to clog our hospitals that are already struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Chicken Soup You Really Need
We’ve all contentedly slurped on condensed Chicken Noodle Soup with a stuffy nose and a sore throat, but there’s not much about canned soup that is good for you.
There’s so much sodium and not that many nutrients. Plus, it’s not that hard to make up a nutrient-packed soup that will actually help your body heal itself. First, let me walk you through the choices I made for ingredients:
Carrots, Celery, and Onion (aka the Mirepoix)
Three words… Eat. Your. Veggies! Your body will soak up the vitamins and nutrients from these veggies to fortify your cells against sickness, and the fiber is crucial to removing waste from your body. We’re talking Vitamins A, C, E, K plus folate, and zinc, all of which are key to cell production and protection.
Jalapeños
With a sore throat, you probably think I’m insane, but trust me on this. By removing the ribs and seeds, you are removing a good bit of the heat, but you are still adding capsaicin to your soup.
This awesome chemical works as a decongestant to clear your sinuses and help you breathe. Ah! It may also raise your body temperature to help kill off germs. For me anyway, the slight burn from these peppers is a welcome relief from the constant itchy-scratchiness.
Ground Ginger
This is another ingredient that will warm you up. It keeps your blood circulating when you’re crashed on the couch. By itself, it helps to settle an upset tummy, but next to those jalapeños and onions, I wouldn’t count on that for this soup… stick to rice if you’re nauseous!
Cayenne Pepper
I’m all about boosting the capsaicin in this soup. If I haven’t been able to breathe out of the left side of my nose in days, but I’m not running a fever, I need my body to heat up to burn off those pesky germs.
Also, these lovely ingredients boost your metabolism a teeny bit. I don’t know about you, but I’m going to be on the couch all day, and I can use whatever boost I can get.
Turmeric + Black Pepper
People are going nuts over turmeric these days. It’s long been used in alternative medicine because of its anti-inflammatory properties, but it also helps to protect your cells against sickness. It certainly helps with those achy joints, and I personally believe it helps me with my headaches.
Here’s the trick though: your body can more easily absorb the curcumin if it’s served up with black pepper. Funny, right? Even better news, they taste really good together.
Chicken Breast
When you’re sick, you certainly need some lean protein, but I highly recommend spending the extra money to get no-hormone, no-antibiotic, free-range chicken that has been fed a balanced diet. A chicken that was raised responsibly is a chicken packed with nutrients and good protein to help you fight a cold.
The Vegan Version of Chicken Soup
Vegans get sick, too. So if you’re feeling under the weather and still want a good bowl of healing soup, leave out the chicken, but add in 2 Tablespoons of nutritional yeast to up the B vitamins. You can also add in veggie crumbles to bulk it up and add protein.
Dark Red Kidney or Black Beans
Forget the noodles… you don’t need simple carbs and useless starches today. You need protein and fiber to keep you full without too many calories. Plus, dark red kidney or black beans come packed with iron.
I also like that when I store the leftovers, the beans hold their structure and shape (unlike noodles which quickly turn to mush in the fridge… yuck).
Enjoy Your Chicken Soup
Of course, you are more than welcome to add other veggies, rice, whatever you want… And if you’re skipping the chicken to make this vegetarian, soy meatless crumbles are a great substitute or just double up on the beans.
I like to serve mine in a big mug so I can sit on the couch, wrapped in a blanket, sipping it. Do want you prefer, but make sure you take care of yourself. Feel better soon, friends!
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Warming Chicken Soup
Equipment
- Large Saucepan
- Ladle
Ingredients
- ½ tsp coconut oil
- 1 Tbsp minced garlic
- 2 large carrots cut into quarter-rounds
- 5 ribs celery including leaves chopped
- 1 medium yellow onion chopped
- 2 large jalapeños no ribs or seeds, small diced
- 1 cooked chicken breast cubed
- 1 cup dark red kidney beans
- 5 cups vegetable broth
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 Tbsp dried parsley
- ½ tsp ground black pepper
- ½ tsp pink himalayan sea salt
Instructions
- In a big pot, warm your coconut oil until it’s clear, and drop in your garlic. When you start to hear the garlic simmering, drop in the mirepoix (carrots, celery, onion). Stir to coat the veggies with oil, then cover and let the steam soften them for about 5 minutes.
- Add in your cubed chicken (or if you're going veg with this, add your meatless crumbles), and your jalapeños and beans.
- Now, cover the solids with your vegetable broth and let it simmer 5 minutes.
- Uncover, add in the salt, pepper, turmeric, cayenne pepper, ground ginger, and parsley. Stir to combine, then cover and simmer for another 5 minutes. Allow it to cool a little bit before serving.
