Hearty Chicken Soup

From the kitchen of Dr. Barrett
​
This hearty chicken soup contains mushrooms and plenty of fresh spices to help keep your immune system strong this winter. Feel free to add burdock root, astragalus root, or more dried medicinal mushrooms and other ingredients to increase the immune boosting effects.

Take your own photos of this recipe and tag us on instagram @wellnessmpls

Click here for a printable PDF
Serves 8-10
Ingredients:

• 1 whole chicken (free range)
• 2 bay leaves
• 10-12 multicolored carrots (purple is best)
• 3 celery stalks
• Fresh rosemary sprigs (dried will work too)
• Fresh thyme sprigs (dried will work too)
• 1 red onion
• Whole black peppercorns
• 2 jalapeños
• ½-1 cup wild rice
• 1.5 pounds fingerling and purple potatoes chopped into bite sized pieces (make sure the flesh is purple as well)
• 2 Tbsp dried sage
• 2 Tbsp tomato paste
• Minced garlic (mince at least 10 minutes before it goes into the pot)
• ¾ cup dried mushrooms (pick an immune boosting mushroom like shiitake)
• 1 bunch green onions, dice green tops and white bulb
• Ground black pepper
• Salt

While making this chicken soup it is very easy to simultaneously make some chicken stock. This will require two large pots.

1.  Start with 1 whole chicken into a pot of water (large enough that the chicken is covered with water) with 1 bay leaf, 1 carrot cut in half, 3 celery stalks cut in half, sprig of rosemary, sprig of thyme, 2 slices of red onion, 6 or 7 black peppercorns, and 1 jalapeno cut in half. Cook until chicken is tender ~180degrees in the breast.
2.  In a small skillet and the rest of the red onion diced with 1 jalapeno diced. Cook until onions are translucent.
3. Once the chicken is fully cooked (~180 degrees in the breast) pull chicken out of the pot and tear off all of the meat into bite sized pieces and set aside. Save the carcass for making stock.
4.  Remove the large vegetable chunks from the water and add to stock pot with carcass and fresh water.
5. Begin cooking the stock. Add another bay leaf and any left over vegetables you have in the kitchen such as onion skin from the red onion, stems from kale etc. Cook for at least one hour. Freeze the stock for easy use later.
6. In the water left over from cooking the chicken (soup) add 3Tbsp of salt, 1/2-3/4 cup of wild rice, chopped 1.5 lbs of fingerling and purple potatoes, 2 Tbsp dried sage, sprig of thyme, 1 Tbsp black pepper, 2 Tbsp tomato paste, 1 clove minced garlic, 3/4 cup dried mushrooms (shiitake), ½ of the diced red onion and jalapeno mixture. Allow this mixture to simmer for 30 minutes.
7. Meanwhile steam the carrots whole until slightly soft but still crisp. Chop carrots in to bite sized pieces add to soup along with pulled chicken.
8. Add 1 bunch of green onions diced. Add more salt to taste.
   

Dr. Sara Jean Barrett is a registered Naturopathic Doctor and co-founder of Wellness Minneapolis. She is also the President of the Minnesota Association of Naturopathic Physicians and a Member of the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians. Click here to learn more about Dr. Barrett.

---