Soup for Sniffles, Aches & Pains

The Covid pandemic has left many lasting effects on us all. Small businesses are hurting still and sadly some have closed. Local schools are still largely remote, or meeting in person very differently than before. Every time you sneeze or cough in public, you feel like a leper and wonder to yourself if the virus has found you.

This week, I was doing my thing, running errands to grab report cards and school photos, minding my own business, when BAM! My body started to ache all over. I tried to ignore it, but something was trying to take me down. Could it be the dreaded Covid?? No fever, no cough, no sore throat, just every joint ached. Of course, my mind spun, imagining it WAS Covid, and I began to think of all the people I had been around, all the places I had gone.

Thankfully, I never did get a fever or any other symptom. I can still smell and taste. I have continued to nibble on Halloween candy just to be sure. So, it would appear that I just picked up some strange virus, not THE virus.

But while I was feeling funky, I knew it was time to make some healing chicken noodle soup, but simply and fairly quickly. This was a job for the Instant Pot.

With just a few basic ingredients, and an electric pressure cooker, you can make a chicken noodle soup that will rival the old fashioned, cooked-on-the-stove-for-hours type of soup your grandma may have made.

This soup is prefect for using up already cooked chicken breasts, or you can use a rotisserie chicken to save time. I have taken to buying a pack of pulled rotisserie chicken breast meat from Costco each time I shop and I pop it in the freezer for just such meal applications.

The only veggies you need are probably already in your fridge and freezer. Peel and chop some carrots, and dice some onions and celery. Sauté them in the Instant Pot with some olive oil until the onions are tender. Add some fresh minced garlic and sauté a bit more. Then add the shredded chicken and some broth and bouillon cubes for good measure, along with a bay leaf for flavor.

Set the pot to pressure cook for 7 minutes, being sure that your pressure valve is set to “Sealed.” The beauty of the electric pressure cooker is that it makes meat tender and melds all the flavors together quickly and easily.

After the time is up, carefully do a quick release of the steam, using a long, protective oven mitt and a cloth to cover the valve. The steam release is the most dangerous part of using an Instant Pot, but it’s no problem if you are cautious.

Use a spoon to remove the bay leaf. Next, add a cup of frozen peas to the pot and return the lid for 2-3 minutes, or until the peas have heated through and plumped up. That’s all there is to a delicious chicken noodle soup base.

You can choose to add the egg noddles to the soup base and cook it all up together in the Instant Pot, but I prefer to cook my noodles separately and add them to each individual bowl. By doing this, each person can control how many noodles they get, and it also prevents the noodles from absorbing all of the liquid broth.

Serve the soup immediately with some bread or biscuits, or maybe cheese and crackers and you have a wonderful, recuperative meal.

You can also plan ahead with this soup by making the base and freezing it. Then the next time you are feeling under the weather, pull it out to thaw. All you have to do is add some egg noodles.

Of course, you do not have to be sick to want chicken noodle soup, it is a staple of colder weather and delicious all the time.

Stay healthy, stay sane – go make some soup.