Chicken, spinach, noodles, in a parsley & onion broth

There is nothing like a good chicken soup when you feel a little under the weather. That was me this week. When I want something more than a can of condensed chicken noodle soup but still want to make a soup that won’t take too long, I turn to this recipe. And yes, nostalgia does come into it a bit for me – my mom first made a soup like this many years ago and I loved it. It became my favorite chicken soup whether I was sick or not. So if you are looking for a new sick day soup (or just a new tasty soup), look no further.

This recipe is so simple and hard to mess up. All you do is add the ingredients in a pot and cook long enough for the pasta to be done. The order you add them doesn’t matter too much either; there are just two things to remember – add spices and herbs earlier so they can release the most flavor and add the spinach during the last few minutes, so you don’t overcook it.

You can use raw or cooked chicken in this recipe. I usually pull a frozen chicken breast out of the freezer and thaw it just enough so that I can cut it. However, I sometimes have leftover chicken on hand that I need to use up, and this is a great recipe to do so. If I am doing that, I will add my chicken close to the end, when I add my spinach, as it doesn’t need to be cooked in the broth.

While I use macaroni usually as the pasta in this soup, any small pasta can be substituted if you don’t have macaroni on hand at the time. You could also use a longer noodle, but if you do, you should break it up into short pieces. Whatever pasta you use, just be sure to look at the cooking time on the package – you don’t want to cook your pasta too much longer than what is listed, or it will get too soft.

Whether you are sick or just need a new soup to get you through the cold days of winter, I hope you find this a great one to add to your arsenal.

– The Recipe –