Chicken penne soup for a snowy night

It's a cold, icy afternoon with sleet pelting the windows. We're waiting for the first real snowfall of the year to descend on the North Carolina Piedmont tonight. So while we wait for this much-anticipated snow, we're making chicken soup.

Making homemade soup is so much better for you than canned soup because it doesn't have any preservatives, and you can control the sodium. Plus, it's inexpensive when you use leftovers from your fridge.

First, make your our own chicken stock. (We used leftover rotisserie chicken.) Add the entire chicken--including bits of meat, cooked skin and bones--to a large stock pot, cover with water, and bring to a boil. Simmer for about 45 minutes. Drain off the chicken pieces and bones, and you're left with your own stock.


Chop three carrots and a couple of stalks of celery, one onion, a clove of garlic and about six small potatoes into bite-size pieces and add to the pot with a couple of bay leaves. Simmer for about 45 minutes, then add the leftover cooked chicken.

Since the rotisserie chicken didn't have much meat left, we defrosted a couple of chicken breasts from the freezer, cooked them on the stovetop, and sliced them into bite-size pieces. We also added 2 1/2 cups of penne pasta with about a tablespoon of lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste.

Simmer until the pasta and vegetables are tender. Don't forget to remove the bay leaves before you serve.


Here's hoping tonight will bring snow!

The Soup Season

With fall and winter on the way, there’s one thing more than any other that I look forward to: soups and stews.

They’re easy to make, hearty and filling, and are among my favorite comfort foods. In school, a lunch of vegetable soup and cheese toast filled me with delight. I loved my grandmother’s milk-based chicken stew, with butter and large elbow macaroni noodles and pieces of tender chicken. My mom often made goulash, with hamburger and noodles.

There’s nothing I like more on a cold Sunday afternoon than a slow-cooked beef stew, with chunks of potatoes, carrots and onions. But when time is short and I have a hankering for a bowl of hot, comforting soup, I use this recipe that I created one blustery, snowy February day. The best part of making soup, though, is the ability to customize and add your own twist.

Jason’s Quick and Easy Vegetable Beef Soup

1 46-oz. can tomato juice, plus 1 can water

1 16-oz. can red kidney beans, drained

1 16-oz. bag frozen soup vegetables

1 lb. ground beef, browned and drained

8 oz. package frozen chopped spinach

4 oz. spiral or elbow macaroni

Thyme, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste

In a large stockpot, heat the tomato juice and water. Add the kidney beans, vegetables and ground beef and bring to a simmer. Add the chopped spinach, macaroni and seasonings, and simmer until macaroni is cooked. Ladle into a bowl and enjoy!

Try using fresh vegetables instead of frozen, or a different type of pasta, or stew beef instead of ground (or no beef at all). With soup, the possibilities are almost endless!