NEW RECIPE - Chicken soup that's low carb, easy and delicious!

I came down with the flu on New Year's Eve - fever for four days, joints and muscles hurt, couldn't stand to have my skin touched. That was the worst of it, but it was another week or 10 days before I felt well again.

There was no gastro-intestinal distress, but nevertheless, I lost 10 pounds in eight days. I think it is because the only thing that tasted good was turkey broth from the freezer. I managed to wipe out my whole store of it. Darn!

Anyway, even though I'm feeling almost 100% again, I got in the habit of having broth. Canned broth - not so good. So last night I devised this quick soup with lots of broth, lots of flavor and some big chunks of chicken.

QUICK AND EASY CHICKEN BROTH

I started with Swanson's chicken stock, rated best by American Test Kitchen. But let's face it, it's not like that turkey broth I was enjoying. I "souped up" my soup this way.

Mise en place:
Dice the onion and celery and set aside.
In your spice prep dish, put your bay leaves, salt, pepper of choice and star anise (if using).
Wipe and slice the mushrooms. I like them in pretty thin slices. Put in bowl and set aside.

1 - 2 lb. box of Swanson's chicken stock
3 - chicken legs with skin and bone (you need both for flavor and for gelatin)
1 - slice of onion from a medium onion, chopped fine
2 - stalks of celery, chopped fine
2 whole bay leaves
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper or a pinch of red pepper flakes
If you have them on hand, one whole star anise
7 or 8  white button or cremini mushrooms

Put stock and chicken legs into a medium pot over high heat just until the stock begins to boil. Then add spices turn heat to lowest setting, put lid on pot and set timer for 35 minutes. Don't overcook. An occasional bubble should rise to the top as it simmers. If you let it continue to boil or leave it over heat too long, the chicken will be dry.

At 35 minutes, add the prepared mushrooms to the pot. Put the lid back on and set timer for 10 minutes. No need to bring back to boil. There should be plenty of residual heat to cook the mushrooms.

Remove the star anise and the bay leaves. Remove chicken legs with tongs and put on plate to cool slightly. Throw away skin and bone and put large chunks of meat back into the pot. Serve immediately.

That's about three meals for me. If you reheat, don't boil, just bring to eating temperature. It is a common mistake to overcook chicken. What makes this so good is that the chicken still remains very juicy, even when reheated.

Enjoy!

Oh, for low carbers, a third of the recipe is 3 carbs. :)

This was in the fridge - see the jelled stock. Good stuff!