Meal Share Monday V.2 (Paleo Chicken Veggie Soup)

#mealsharemonday v.2 

(use this hashtag on instagram or twitter to link up your favorite meals!)

I'm writing this as Sandy moves in over the area... hoping we don't lose power but we'll see :) So far, it is windy and rainy but we have food to eat and stir crazy children, what more can you ask for??? :) 

Speaking of food, this week I prepared 2 BIG pots of chicken vegetable soup for our church family that was volunteering to get our church building ready for our ribbon cutting service we had yesterday. It was super tasty but there were only a few people working and lots of food so 1.5 pots came home to me. Yay for reheat meals- especially during a storm when all you want to do is sleep! 

Honestly, there isn't anything super original about this recipe but it is yummy and all my kids shovel it in.

Paleo Roasted Chicken Vegetable Soup

Roasted chicken:
1 Whole chicken
-3 cloves grated or finely choped/minced garlic
-salt & pepper
-garlic powder
-onion powder
-basil
-whatever other seasoning you like for your chicken
-EVOO

combine olive oil w/ garlic & all the seasons and then rub under the skin and on top of the skin. Bake @350 for 45 min-2hrs depending on the size of your chicken. When it is finished, let it cool some & pick the chicken off the carcass & set aside.

Homemade Chicken Stock:

After picking chicken from carcass, place all the bones in a pot w/ about 12 C of water & season w/ garlic, onions, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, basil, oregano & whatever else you may like. Heat slowly and simmer (not boil) for about 3 hours. After simmering, strain out all the bones, onion & garlic and even any meat that happened to come off in the water. At this point, that stuff doesn't have much flavor or nutritional value so don't feel bad tossing it.

Soup:

Homemade chicken stock
picked chicken
seasonings
3 cloves garlic (grated or finely chopped)
1 onions chopped
5 or 6 stalks celery chopped
1/2 head of cabbage chopped
1 lb bag of baby carrots (I cut them in half lengthwise)

When I made this, I split the stock into 2 pots and then added more water (in this case, pretty much double the veggies). If you just want one pot and don't care to have stock to freeze or use later, you could probably just use all the stock and not add water & season to taste :) Throw in all the veggies & chicken and bring to a boil. Allow it to simmer until all the veggies are soft (maybe 30-45mins).

Enjoy!