How to Make Chicken Soup in a Slow-Cooker

A few weeks ago (ok maybe over a month now?) I started a health pact with fellow primal eater Roger who co-blogs over at Son of Grok’s. I suggested he should eat more soup and he said he had never actually made it before! I can’t imagine never having homemade soup. I was going to point him to a recipe on my blog and realized I have no chicken soup recipe posted. So I wrote it to him in an email, trying very hard to outline each step. I was worried about leaving out details since this is something I make so often I’m usually on autopilot and don’t think about what I’m doing.  Once you make it a couple times, it’s very easy to customize to suit your tastes.

Here’s the email instructions I sent him, with pictures he sent back documenting his first attempt at homemade soup:

Basic Ginger Chicken Soup

2 lb chicken legs pieces
ginger, sliced

1 large onion
1-2 large carrots
2-4 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp each sea salt & pepper

big bunch greens
ginger, grated

Place chicken pieces in a crockpot, skin side up. Slice fresh ginger root with a knife (or if frozen, grate it) and place around chicken pieces. Add enough water to almost cover the chicken pieces. You want to leave the chicken poking out a bit so the skin browns.

Cook on low all day (or at least 6 hours).

When you get home from work (or after 6 hours) remove the ginger pieces using a fork, if you can find them. Chop up the onion and carrot into small bite sized chunks, toss into crockpot (try not to take the lid off too long). Chop up the garlic into little pieces and add to the soup. Add salt & pepper. Turn crockpot to high for 45 minutes. (Note, Roger added some red pepper and celery, really add any vegetables you want!)

After 45 minutes add the greens and mix them in a bit with a spoon (can tear up into smaller pieces first if preferred).

Let it simmer another 15 minutes until greens are wilted.

Ladle the soup into a bowl, grabbing lots of veggies and broth. Pull out the meat from a couple chicken pieces with a knife and fork and add the meat to your bowl. Grate some fresh ginger into your bowl, about 1/2 tsp. Add salt & pepper to taste.

Looks like he did an awesome job with this soup! He said it was great and his daughter loved it too. Only thing I would change is to tell him to add a bit more water at the beginning. My slow-cooker seems to keep all moisture in but his evaporated a bit.

For anyone just starting out on SCD or if you still have digestive symptoms, it is usually recommended to cook vegetables for a longer time and puree them into the soup. I prefer now adding the vegetables towards the end of cooking so that they aren’t completely mushy and have some flavour left. Use your judgement for how long you need to cook them and add/substitute any vegetables that you can tolerate. I like to use ginger in my soups because it can help a lot with digestion and inflammation, and it gives it a nice kick.

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday hosted by Kelly the Kitchen Kop.