Three Ingredient Soup

     Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooup!  My life seems to revolve around soup.  Soup pops up everywhere, and in just about every conversation I have, it seems.  A friend calls to cancel a play date because of sick kids- I naturally ask if I can bring her some chicken soup.  I plan a day in town, I grab a quart of soup I have stashed for just such an occasion.  In fact, the first thing I usually do in the kitchen is check in on my soup reserves.  I eat a lot of soup.  To be honest, I am getting kind of bored of it.

"At home I have big vats of cabbage soup I make to slim down." 

-Jilly Cooper

     I try fancy recipes to get me out of the slumps, but to no avail.  I just do not really want to drink my food anymore, and the more ingredients the more complicated and for some reason the less I like the flavor.  So, I came up with this simple recipe.  This is a winning soup.  I can not really tell you why I like it so much, or why I prefer it to any other, but it just works so well.  So here it is, Three Ingredient Soup

Three Ingredient Soup

Things you will need:

whole chicken

4 cloves of garlic, minced

peeled and shredded carrots (about 2 to 3 pounds)

soup pot

salt and pepper

water

(okay, so technically there are six ingredients if you count the salt, pepper and water)

Directions:

1. Place whole chicken in soup pot and cover with water.  Add salt and pepper and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for an hour and a half or until the internal temperature reaches 170 degrees.

2. Remove the chicken from the soup pot.  Cut open to cool more quickly, slicing down the middle of the breast.

3. Add shredded carrots and minced garlic to soup pot and bring to a boil.

4. While waiting for the soup pot to come back to a boil, remove the chicken from the bone.  (I usually am hungry by this point and I eat the chicken skin and things you would not want to bite into in your soup.)  Cut the meat up into bite size pieces and set aside.  (Save the bones for bone broth.)

5. Let soup boil for 15 to 20 minutes, then remove from heat and mix in chicken.  Stir and serve.

"Birthday Soup is good to eat, but not as good as Birthday Cake." -Else Holmelund Minarik, Little Bear