Budget Chicken Soup
A quick and easy chicken soup recipe that does not require any costly ingredients.
Servings: 8 servings
Ingredients
- ½ onion, roughly chopped
- 30 ml vegetable oil
- 2 to 4 chicken breasts deboned or not
- 1,5 litre chicken stock, warmed
- 1 litre boiling water
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 t dried parsley
- 1 t chicken seasoning
- 4 to 6 c frozen mixed vegetables
- 1 or 2 potato, cubed
- 3 tbsp flour or cornstarch (heaped)
- ½ c cold milk or cream
Instructions
- In a large pot, fry the chicken breasts in the oil, skin side down until browned.
- Add the onion and fry until translucent.
- Add the warm stock, about half of the boiling water, herbs & spices and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes until the chicken is tender.
- Remove the chicken portions from the stock and let it cool down a bit. Bring the stock up to a boil and add the potato cubes and then the frozen veggies.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Let the veggies cook in the stock until they are tender, but not overcooked. Approximately 10 to 15 minutes.
- In the meantime, debone the chicken and chop the meat into cubes or strips. Don't make the chopped chicken too fine.
- Once the veggies are tender, add the chicken back to the stock and bring it to a simmer. You can add the other half of the boiling water if the stock has cooked away.
- Dissolve the flour or cornstarch in the cold milk, making sure there are no lumps. Pour the flour slurry into the soup gradually while stirring.
- Keep stirring while the soup thickens.
- Once the soup is thick, check the seasoning, adding salt or pepper as needed.
- Serve warm with soft buttered breadrolls or warm crusty bread.
Notes
- You can add a carrot and celery stalk when cooking the onion for more flavour.
- Adding some dried chilli flakes when adding the herbs will give it a kick and chilli is very good for colds. This is also the point at which you can flavour the soup to your liking: Mexican, Thai, curry or hot!
- If you want to use fresh vegetables instead of frozen, adjust the cooking time as many fresh veggies cook faster than their frozen counterparts. Mushrooms are a lovely addition to chicken soup.
- Noodles or rice can be added when you add the frozen veggies. Grains that take longer to cook like barley can be added when you add the stock.
- If you would like a creamier soup, you can replace the ½ cup of milk with cream as I did when cooking the soup for this post. Gradually adjust the heat of the soup as you don't want the cream to split. You can also just add a dollop of cream on top of the soup once you have dished it up.
- Adding a tin of beans or cream-style sweetcorn are also good additions which make the soup more filling, but isn't expensive.