Sick Kickin' Chicken Noodle Soup

This is my go to soup whenever someone in my family isn't feeling well. You'd be surprised at how quickly it starts to make you feel better. It's so healthy and comforting it's great for improving those cold weather blues too. Thankfully, warmer weather is just around the corner because we've had an unusually long season of sickness in our household. If I hear sniffles or start to feel something coming on I pull out the chicken and veggies. You're essentially making a homemade chicken stock packed full of nutrients with the addition of all the goodness you see above. If you like herb-y, veggie, chicken-y goodness you'll love this soup! It is about an hour of total cooking time, but just remember it's worth it and makes enough for soup all week. 

Ingredients:

-2 T olive oil
-2 T butter (can easily be left out, only here for an extra richness in flavor for the broth)
-1 chopped sweet onion
-3 large cloves of chopped garlic (or a couple more if you're garlic obsessed like me)
- 1 tsp grated fresh ginger or 1/2 tsp dried 
-1/2 lemon sliced into wedges (approx 4 small slices) 
-2 large boneless chicken breasts with the fat trimmed off
- 4 large chopped organic carrots
- 4-6 stalks of organic celery chopped
- 2 large russet potatoes cubed
-10 cups of filtered water
- 16 oz. pasta (I usually use wide egg noodles for the kids or brown rice, gluten free, noodles for myself). 
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes
-1 T sea salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
-2 sprigs of fresh oregano
- 3 sprigs of lemon thyme or regular thyme
- 2 sprigs of fresh lemon balm or rosemary
*I typically throw in a bunch of whichever earthy or lemony fresh herbs I have in the garden. If using dried herbs, just use about 1 tsp of each just remember dried herbs are a lot more powerful in flavor ESPECIALLY dried rosemary. 

 Directions:

• In a large soup pot, add oil, and butter, and turn to a medium heat.
• Add in the chopped onions and red pepper flakes then saute until onions are translucent.
• Next, add in the chopped garlic and ginger. Stir and saute for a couple of minutes, but watch closely so that the garlic doesn't burn. 
• Place the two large whole chicken breasts into the pot and stir some of the onions, garlic, and ginger up over the breasts. 
• Over the top of the chicken add in 8 cups of filtered water. Also add in the lemon slices, salt, pepper, and herbs. *If you want to be careful not to have the stems in your soup, you can put all the fresh herbs in a little wrapped cheese cloth and toss in.
• Stir broth with chicken every 5 minutes or so, keep on a low boil. You're going to be boiling the chicken for about 30 minutes. 
•  Carefully remove the two chicken breasts and place aside on a plate to be shredded or sliced. Allow to cool for as long as needed.
• While the pot is still on a low boil, add in the potatoes, carrots, and celery.
• In a separate pot boil water to cook the pasta. If cooking the gluten free pasta remember to cook for like 2 minutes less than the least amount of cooking time. You don't want gummy pasta. 
•  While the pasta is boiling in one pot and the soup is low simmering and cooking the veggies you can shred that chicken into bite sized pieces and return to the soup pot.
• Once pasta has been cooked add it into the soup pot along with 2 cups of water.  
• Give it all a really good stir, remove lemon slices and herbs stems. 
• Do a little happy dance because you're done! Enjoy all the warmth and health benefits! 

*If you don't plan on using all of the soup made, it keeps in the fridge for up to a week and a month in the freezer. You just don't really want to freeze gluten free pasta because it will turn into mush the longer its in there.