No pictures because dangummit, I HAVE A HEAD COLD. You’ll have to trust me on this one. besides,chicken soup doesn’t look like much. Oh I know, all the good food blogs use lovely pictures that make their food look flamin’ AMAZING and that’s the big part of their appeal and unless I get to crackin’ and learn how to take decent pictures I’ll never have the following of Smitten Kitchen or whatever. O STINKIN’ WELL. I have a head cold and I DON’T CARE ABOUT PICTURES.

Ok, so a long time ago, a Jewish friend of mine sent me the recipe for Jewish Penicillin and let me tell you it is delicious. It also take 24 hours and some work to make. When I get sick I don’t ahve 24 hours to sit around and wait and scoop schmaltz off the top of slow simmering soup. I just don’t want to and there’s no one else in the house who wants to either. If I get sick and whine “chicken soup” their interpretation is to open a can of Campbell’s (after driving to the store to get it because I don’t keep it in the house, How very UnAmerican) but I don’t want that. I want my own version,and naturally, even though I am feeble and weak from disease, I have to make it myself. Because they NEVER put in enough garlic or black pepper.

So here’s how I do it. First, I get some frozen chicken legs out. There are always chicken legs in the freezer because I prefer dark meat and I can get those 10 pound bags for $5 and I’m stunningly cheap.
4 chicken legs, nice and meaty.
The biggest pot I have, I reckon it’s about 2 gallons. I’ve never checked. Fill it with water and put the frozen chicken legs in.
Add a couple of BIG HEAPING spoonfuls of minced garlic. Or perhaps a whole head of garlic, smashed. I buy the minced stuff in the jar. I’m talking BIG HEAPING spoonfuls. I would even hazard to say it’s close to 1/4 cup worth.
Put in several nice long stems of fresh thyme. I reckon if you stripped the stems and measured, it would be about 2 teaspoons of thyme leaves. Or maybe 1/2 tsp of dried? I never use dried so I’m guessing there.
Likewise, several nice long stems of fresh oregano. I stripped it off the stems and chopped it. Definitely about 1/4 cup. Probably at least a tablespoon of dried.
Several generous grindings of coarse black pepper. I’m going to call it 2 teaspoons, maybe more.
Bring that all to a boil, then turn it down to a simmer until the chicken is falling off the bone. Scoop out the chicken and bones and stuff and set it aside to cool. Skim off the fat. I have one of those fancy fat skimmer things that makes it easy, or you could use a ladle or something. But get the fat out of it (blech, chicken fat…yuck)
Bring it back to a low simmer.
Add a big heaping spoonful of Better Than Boullion chicken base. It’s nice and salty.
Taste the broth to see if you need MORE SALT! I love salty stuff when I have a cold. It makes my throat feel good.
Grate up 4 carrots. Throw that in. Add some chopped parsley*.
*if you don’t grow parsley, buy it fresh from the store and cut it off the stems, then freeze it. Then you can crumble off however much you want, and it’s like having fresh, almost. It’s not garnish-worthy, but definitely cooking-worthy.
Add some form of carbohydratey sort of thing. Rice, noodles, yeah whatever. I like brown rice because it holds upwell for leftovers. Noodles turn to weird pastey stuff, so does white rice. About 1 cup of brown rice. Do you have leftover already cooked rice? Go for it, throw that in.
Shred up the cooled chicken and add that back in. (after picking out the bones and skin)
Sit on the couch, propped up with cushions and a dog at your feet, watch some Netflix Bollywood movie and sip the soup out of a mug. You own’t feel that much better right away, but everyone will get the message that you need to be left alone, at the same time being wildly impressed with your awesome culinary skills because I’m telling you the house will smell fabulous.