Lemon-Chicken Soup with Orzo

This month my goal was to make a different soup every weekend, freeze half of it, and enjoy while the weather got colder. While I was growing up, my mom would make a dozen different kinds of soup as it started to get colder and freeze them. We ate homemade soup all winter and all we had to do was take a container out of the freezer. I thought that since neither my husband nor I are at home as much this winter, we could get our own soup bank started.

We made chili the last weekend of September and it was glorious to sit under a blanket on the couch, cuddle up with the husband, and warm up with some chili. Of course, this past weekend was really too warm to truly enjoy soup, but at least the recipe I picked was a nice light chicken soup.

This soup starts with making your own chicken stock. After making my own, I will never go back to store-bought stock. It is ridiculously easy and ridiculously delicious. Plus, I like to manage the amount of sodium I'm taking in, so making my own stock is the way to go!

Lemon-Chicken Soup with Orzo
adapted from Cooking Light


Stock Ingredients:
1 4lb whole chicken
2 carrots, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces
2 celery stalks, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 medium onion, peeled and sliced
6 garlic cloves, crushed
4 sprigs fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 teaspoons whole black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
6 cups water

1. Remove and discard giblets and neck from chicken. Place chicken in a large Dutch oven. Add the rest of the ingredients to the pan and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat and simmer for 45 minutes.

2. Remove chicken from pan, place aside to cool for about 15 minutes. Discard the skin. Remove meat from the bones, discarding the bones. Chop (or shred with your fingers) chicken into bite-sized pieces. Place meat into a covered container and refrigerate.

3. Strain broth mixture through a sieve into a large bowl. Discard the solids. Cool broth to room temperature. Cover and chill for 8-24 hours (allowing the fat to rise to the surface and solidify). Skim fat from surface and discard.


Lemon-Chicken Soup Ingredients
1 ⅓ cups chopped carrot
1 ¼ cups chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
2 teaspoons salt
8 oz uncooked orzo
¼ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 ½ teaspoons grated lemon rind
¼ cup fresh lemon juice

4. Add water to broth to equal 9 cups, place broth mixture in a large Dutch oven. Add the carrot, onion, celery and salt to pan and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Add the chicken meat and simmer for about 3 minutes.

5. Meanwhile, cook the orzo according to the package directions, omitting salt and fat. Add the pasta to the pan with the chicken and broth mixture. Stir in parsley, lemon rind and lemon juice.

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Potato Soup & Bread bowls

I'll admit, this recipe is basically word for word from Southern Living via MyRecipes.com , but it presented some challenges that I had to remedy on my own. First of all- I was certain that a KitchenAid was going to be on my wedding registry, but I'm doubly sure of it now. I can remember making breads with my grandmother (who had a KitchenAid herself) and doing tons of kneading, which was a fun "old-fashioned" experience for me. But I found my little hand mixer just wouldn't get all 7 cups of flour into the dough and ended up doing a lot of it by hand. Also, the bread bowls seemed really small. I may just be used to Panera's gigantic sourdough bread bowls, but it didn't seem like you could get a whole serving of soup in there.

Luckily the soup was pretty low maintenance. Just throw a bunch of stuff in the crockpot, set the timer and forget about it. I think the recipe is a good basic potato soup but I think it could be much better if you played around with different ingredients and maybe some additional spices. Overall, a good recipe for a fall day.

Italian Bread Bowls
2 1/2 cups warm water
2 (1/4 oz) envelopes active dry yeast
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
7 cups all- purpose flour
1 tablespoon cornmeal
1 egg white
1 tablespoon water

1. Stir together 2 1/2 cups water and yeast in a large bowl. Let stand 5 minutes. Stir in salt and oil.

2. Add flour gradually, beating at medium speed with an electric mixer until soft dough forms.

3. Turn dough out onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic (4-6 minutes). Place in a lightly greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place, free from drafts, 35 minutes or until doubled in bulk.

4. Punch dough down and divide into 8 equal portions. Shape each portion into a 4 inch round loaf. Place loaves on lightly greased baking sheets sprinkled with cornmeal.

5. Cover and let rise in a warm place, free from drafts, 35 minutes or until doubled in bulk.

6. Stir together egg white and 1 tablespoon water, brush over loaves.

7. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Brush with remaining egg mixture, and bake 10-15 minutes more or until golden. Cool on wire racks. Freeze up to 1 month if desired.

8. Cut a 1/2 inch thick slice from top of each loaf; scoop out centers, leaving 3/4 inch thick shells. Reserve centers for other uses. Fill bread bowls with hot soup and serve immediately.

Potato Soup
6 potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 medium onions, diced
2 carrots thinly sliced
2 celery ribs thinly sliced
2 (14 1/2 oz) cans reduced sodium chicken broth
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 cup half and half

1. Combine first 8 ingredients in 4 1/2 quart slow cooker.

2. Cook, covered at HIGH for 3 hours or until vegetables are tender.

3. Stir together flour and half and half; stir into soup. Cover and cook 30 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Serve in bread bowls.