Today’s Lunch- Chicken Vegetable Soup
Today the lunch bag doesn’t have a box, it’s a thermos😉 Since our family is under the weather with minor cold and sore throat, chicken soup is the order of the day. Here I made it with a fewer ingredients and for specific get well reasons for the kids and us. But many a time left over soup from dinner is a great lunch box idea.
Prep Time: 10 Minutes
Cook Time: 1 hr
Servings: 4
Ingredients
• 1 Chicken leg quarter
• 4 cups fluid Chicken Broth( home made or store bought)
• 1 red Onion, Chopped
• 1 rib Celery, chopped
• 1 large Carrot, scrapped and Chopped
• 1/2 Parsnip, scrapped and Chopped
• 1 bell pepper, chopped
• 2 jalapenos, chopped
• 1 potato, peeled and cubed
• ½ cup corn(optional- may give sweet flavor)
• ¼ cut sliced beet root( optional – may give sweet flavor)
• 1 tblsp Olive oil
• 1 tsp Ginger paste
• 1 tsp Garlic paste
• 1 teaspoon Salt or to taste
• 1 tsp Ground Black Pepper or to taste
Preparation Instructions
In a stockpot, pour little olive oil, add ginger and garlic paste and onions and sauté , add the chicken leg quarter, salt and freshly crushed black pepper. I prefer to sauté and brown the chicken a little before adding all the vegetables. The kind of vegetables you want to add can depend on what is available in your fridge and pantry and not necessarily on the recipe. What ever ingredients you add will not mess the simple recipe.
After adding the vegetables, pour in some chicken stock. I have bottles of homemade chicken stock in the freezer which I defrosted and added. You can add a can of store brought stock too. Add few more cups of water, salt and pepper and bring to boil. But continue to let it cook on simmer for an hour.
The chicken by then is completely cooked and ready to fall apart from the bones, while the vegetables are nice and tender. Take it out and pull the bones apart and break the chicken into chunks and drop it back into the soup. The soup now is very delicious with varied flavors from vegetables and chicken. If you don’t like any particle flavors you can skip some vegetables accordingly.
The chicken soup is best kept in the lunch thermos/ vacuum insulated food jar, which will keep warm till lunch time. (The trick to keep food really warm in thermos is pour boiling water in it to warm the insides of the thermos, and just before pouring the soup in throw the boiling water out. The thermos hence maintains a warm temperature.)
I also packed the lunch bag with a side of garlic bread, some tortilla chips or Fritos , a fruit cup, a bottle of water, and a granola bar for snack time.
