About two weeks ago, poor Marc was stricken with an ever-unpleasant bout of the stomach flu. Naturally, (being the nice girlfriend that I am) I took care of him as best I could. Naturally, being the wonderful boyfriend/coach he is, Marc turned around and gave me the stomach flu too. Yuck! Too bad for him though… he re-caught it from me two days later. Oh, it’s funny now, but it was awful at the time! Although the sickness through us off our paleo routine for a couple of days, our drifting didn’t happen before I was able to come up with a recipe for paleo chicken soup.

This is not your variety Cambell’s version by the way, so que up your El Paso side think more along the lines of Mexican Caldo de Pollo (86 the rice, corn and tortillas of course).

What’s great about this recipe is that you can really cater it to your own likes and dislikes. Personally, cabbage grosses me out, but many find it delicious. So if there are certain vegetables you like more than others, increase the amount of your preferred choices. This can really be made to suit the likes and dislikes of you and your family.

I find that most soups and sauces taste best when allowed to simmer at a low heat for as long as possible. I recommend at least one hour or until some of the harder vegetables like carrots are soft throughout. Because of longer cook times associated with soup, I simplified the beginning steps of this meal and used a rotisserie chicken for the meat. Feel free to experiment with different types of stew meat though as well.

Now most of the time, I hate touching a rotisserie chicken. I hate seeing that poor little chicken body with the string around its little ankles… honestly it grosses me out. Normally, Marc is nice enough to do this part for me, but being that he was plagued with some sort of virus at the time, I figured it would be in our best interest if I muscled up my inner cavewoman and dug in.

After my long time spent engaging in kitchen battle with the little critter, chopping vegetables, and patiently waiting for my deliciously spicy chicken soup to be done, I was ready for my designated taste tester to try out my new concoction.

If you are waiting to hear his reaction, though…. you are going to be waiting a while. Poor Marc fell asleep on my couch at 7 P.M. and didn’t wake up until twelve hours later. His reaction to the left over soup was evidenced enough by the constant slurping I heard for the next two days and the evidence of an empty bowl in my sink every few hours. I think… success!

To try out my simple version of Paleo Chicken Soup check out the recipe listed below. Feel free to change the amount of each vegetable or to add different ones to suit your own taste buds!

Soup Ingredients:

1 Rotisserie Chicken

1 Large Container of Chicken Stock (32 Oz. is my preferred size)

2 Cups of Water

1 Large Zucchini (thickly sliced)

1 Large Yellow Squash (thickly sliced)

3-4 Carrots (opt for medium sized slices)

½ Onion (Chopped into large layers)

Soup Seasoning- I like to use the following spices in varying combinations to spice my soup. Modify as desired: Crushed Red Pepper Flakes, Paprika, Garlic Salt, Onion Powder, Black Pepper and Sea Salt. Keep tasting to ensure you are getting the taste you’re craving. If you accidently put too much, a little water should fix that right up.

1)     The Broth- In a large pot, combine chicken broth, water, and desired spices.

2)     Prepare additional ingredients- Use a fork to shred your chicken into large pieces and set aside, then cut all vegetables to your preferred size and texture.  Add all ingredients to your broth and mix together well.

3)     Bring your soup to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and allow it to simmer for about one hour.

Cooking tip: Simmering is a gentler way to cook soup than boiling because vigorous bubbling toughens meat and damage vegetables. To start a simmer, bring water to a boil, then adjusts the heat down until gentle bubbling is seen.

4)     Allow the soup to cool to a non-tongue burning temperature and enjoy