Chicken Soup...good for your soul and your body!

Happy Fall, Y’all!

Fall is my very favorite time of the year!  Give me all of the pumpkins, cozy throws, and comfort food!  Even though the temperature is still in the 80's during the day here in Texas, the mornings and evenings are getting cooler and that says Fall to me!  

One of my very favorite things to make in this season is homemade soup.  I roasted a whole chicken yesterday for dinner, and I saved the bones from it to make the chicken stock today for my soup.   My recipe is listed below, but I wanted to take a few minutes and explain why soup made with homemade broth is especially healthy and nourishing.

There’s a reason that it’s prescribed by doctors and mothers alike when you’re feeling under the weather. All bone broths — beef, chicken, fish, lamb and more — are staples in the traditional diets of every culture and the basis of all fine cuisine. That’s because bone broths are nutrient-dense, easy to digest, rich in flavor and they boost healing.

Bone broth or stock was a way our ancestors made use of every part of an animal. Bones and marrow, tendons and ligaments that you can’t eat directly can be boiled and then simmered over a period of hours, or even days. This simmering causes the bones and ligaments to release healing compounds that are rich in collagen, gelatin, minerals, and amino acids that have the power to truly improve your health.  In fact, there are dozens of different nutrients found within bone broth, many of which can’t be obtained easily from other commonly eaten foods. 

 Bone broth could be easily be called “nature’s multivitamin.” It’s packed with:

        *over 19 easy-to-absorb, essential and non-essential amino acids (the building blocks of proteins)

        *collagen/gelatin, which help form connective tissue

         *nutrients that support digestive functions, immunity and brain health

Collagen/Gelatin 

Real collagen is the source of stock’s immune-boosting properties. You’ve probably heard a lot about collagen lately and all of the health benefits in it, from reducing fine lines, wrinkles, and cellulite, to creating a nourishing addition to your digestive tract and intestines.  

Collagen is the protein found in connective tissue of vertebrate animals. It’s abundant in bone, marrow, cartilage, tendons and ligaments. The breakdown of collagen in bone broths is what produces gelatin.

Gelatin (the breakdown of collagen) was one of the first functional foods used as a medical treatment in ancient China. Dr. Francis Pottenger and other world-class researches have found gelatin and collagen to have the listed benefits:

*Collagen protects and soothes the lining of the digestive tract and can aid in healing IBS, Crohn’s, ulcerative colitis and acid reflux symptoms.

*Bone broth increases collagen, reducing the appearance of wrinkles and banishing cellulite.

*Because gelatin helps break down proteins and soothes the gut lining, it may prove useful for leaky syndrome and the autoimmune disorders that accompany it.

*Gelatin provides bone-building minerals in easily absorbable ways, preventing bone loss and reducing join pain.  

            

Amino Acids

Gelatin in bone broths contains “conditional” amino acids arginine, glycine, glutamine and proline, as well. These amino acids also contribute to stock’s healing properties.  Conditional amino acids are those classified as nonessential amino acids that are essential under some conditions. You don’t produce them very well if you are ill or stressed.  Especially, in today’s unhealthy Western diets, which are heavy on processed carbohydrates, low in quality grass-fed animal products, and devoid of homemade soups and broths, make it likely that these amino acids are chronically essential.

Some of the important functions of these amino acids are:

Arginine

Necessary for immune system function and wound healing

Needed for the production and release of growth hormone

Helps regenerate damaged liver cells

Needed for the production of sperm

Glycine

Prevents breakdown of protein tissue like muscl

Used to make bile salts and glutathion

Helps detoxify the body of chemicals and acts as antioxidant

Is a neurotransmitter that improves sleep and improves memory and performance

Proline

Helps regenerate cartilage and heal joint

Reduces cellulite and makes skin more supple

Helps repair leaky gut

Glutamine

Protects gut lining

Metabolic fuel for cells in small intestine

Improves metabolism and muscle building

Minerals and Electrolytes

Bone broth provides essential minerals, including electrolytes, all provided in an easy-to-absorb form. Electrolytes found within bone broth include calcium, magnesium and potassium (not to mention many other minerals, such as phosphorus), which are important for supporting healthy circulation, bone density, nerve signaling functions, heart health and digestive health. When added sodium levels are kept low, bone broth contains an ideal balance of sodium and potassium to support cellular health and efficiency.  The mineral and electrolyte properties are another good reason why when you are sick and dehydrated, that chicken soup, made with homemade stock is a great thing to eat.

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Most store-bought stock and broth today aren’t REAL.  Instead, companies use lab-produced meat flavors in bouillon cubes, soup and sauce mixes. Also, manufacturers began using monosodium glutamate (MSG), which is recognized as a meat flavor but in reality is a neurotoxin.

If you want real bone broth and real bone broth benefits, you can make it yourself at home, which I explain how to below. You need to get grass-fed bones from your local farmers market or organic from a grocery store.  I haven’t had a chance to get to my favorite farmer’s market in a couple of months, so my chicken soup today is made from an organic, pasture raised whole chicken from Central Market.   

In this busy season, we are typically doing well to have a home cooked meal in our home, so I will admit that we don’t typically just drink the broth – it is a big thing in the health and wellness world right now, and we have done it years ago, when our son’s digestive health was struggling.  However, with our busy lifestyle today, I just try and have this nutrient rich broth on hand to use wherever I can.  I always save turkey and chicken bones or buy them sold as soup bones at the farmer’s market.  I make a broth with the roasted bones, the tiny amount of meat left on them, and some vegetables, salt, and pepper, and add filtered water.  Then, simmer it for hours  - seriously, it is that easy.  There is no measuring anything here.  You just leave it for hours on the stove and pray someone comes to your door, because your home will smell divine.  

 When the broth is finished, I either use it as soup that day or the next, or I freeze it in glass jars to have on hand.  I almost always use chicken broth to cook my brown rice in.  I can’t remember the last time I used water, because the broth just makes simple rice taste so much better, plus you are getting major health benefits from the broth being in there. 

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So, there you have it. Here is my recipe below for a yummy, comforting chicken soup.  Tonight, I served it with homemade gluten free bread that I made in my bread maker.

 For the stock/broth

*1 large leftover roasted chicken and all bones. 

 (If you don’t have much leftover meat on it, you may just want to roast a small chicken and use the entire thing for your soup. I tend to buy as large of a chicken as I can and use the leftover meat from it and the meat still adhering to the bones.) 

*1-2 large carrots

*1-2 stalks celery – use the leafy parts, too!  They add tons of flavor!

*2 smashed garlic cloves

*2 tsp. salt

*black pepper to taste

Put this all together in a pot, cover with about 5-6 qt. of water and simmer anywhere from 5-6 hours to a day or so.  (For reference, my stockpot is 8 qt and was filled about 3/4 of the way full.)  If you have an Instant Pot, you can make rich broth in about 2 hours.  I usually start this in the morning and then use it for dinner.  So, mine simmers about 12 hours.  I don't measure out any of the vegetables and you can't mess this up. 

For the soup

*Run the stock through a fine mesh sieve to get all of the vegetables, bones, etc. separated from your broth.  Discard those pieces or pick off some of the meat still left and usable.

*About 2 cups cooked chicken, cut or torn into pieces

*About 2 large carrots sliced into coins or smaller pieces

*About 2-3 stalks celery and leafy parts sliced

*About 1/3 of yellow onion, minced

*Fresh herbs to taste...I use about 1-2 Tb. each of rosemary, oregano, and thyme

*About 1-1/2 c uncooked pasta (I use Jovial gluten free brand)

*Salt and pepper to taste

*2 Tb. Olive oil

Drizzle olive oil in the bottom of your stockpot and sauté the vegetables until they become fragrant, about 5 min.  Add your broth back into the pot, and add pasta and chicken, and herbs, and bring to a boil.  Once boiling, immediately simmer for about 20 min, or until pasta is tender.  

Enjoy!

 💕