Chicken Soup for the Cold

I've had the same "summer cold" for two weeks, and the day before yesterday, my poor Mr. Panza came down with it too.

Oh, how sad I was to leave off to work while my new husband lay miserable in bed, coughing and sniffling amongst the tissues and cough drops! So I made him some chicken soup to keep him company all day.

A quick note about this recipe: I wanted it to be not just about taste, but about restoration. I was reading the Herbal Drugstore in my utterly elusive gradual quest to become less chemical dependent (less processed foods, less synthetic materials, less gas), and saw that ginger and garlic have significant curative properties. So in other words, your breath will stink, but hey, you'll feel better.



1 1/2 cartons chicken broth (maybe 6 or 8 cups?)
2 cups water
1 1/2 lbs. chicken thighs, cooked and shredded
1/2 regular bag egg noodles
1/2 small head cabbage, shredded
1 med onion, roughly chopped
2 small carrots, cut into strips
2 stalks celery
3 cloves garlic, smashed (must be fresh, no powder!)
2 spoonfuls sliced ginger (must be fresh, no powder!)
1 lemon
2 bay leaves
1 tsp. chile pepper flakes
salt
pepper
thyme

Okay, this may sound gross, but to cook the chicken I boiled it in salted water in my cast iron. While it cooked, I chopped the veggies. When the chicken was cooked through, I set it aside on a plate, then poured out the water until approximately a couple cups was left. I added the chicken broth to that, then put it back on medium heat.

Next dump the bay leaves, all the vegetables, except for the ginger and garlic, and the noodles in the broth. Cut the lemon into quarters, juicing all of it into the broth and adding one of the quarter rinds for good measure. Raise the heat and shred the chicken while the broth comes to a boil. Once the broth is rolling, lower the heat, add the chicken, give the whole thing some solid grinds of salt and pepper and about a 1/2 tsp of thyme. Last add the garlic and ginger.

Once the noodles are done, the soup is ready for battling nasty man colds .

Until next time, Buen Provecho!