(Inspired “A Fowl Story,” p. 54, Cornfields to Codfish)

Everyone should have a go-to chicken soup recipe. I didn’t realize that until the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010 – when friends and neighbors delivered chicken soup to me each week that I had chemo. Throughout those eight rounds of chemo, I was amazed that every single person’s soup was slightly different. Studying recipes and chatting with friends about how they make chicken soup, I’ve landed on this as my go-to recipe.

While it calls for “cooked” noodles, I often cook the noodles right in the soup. One of the best things about this recipe is that it freezes well at various stages: cooked only through veggies, or through chicken, or after adding rice. It doesn’t freeze well with noodles; they wilt and disintegrate. Add lime juice after reheating it, not before freezing it.

A batch of Waste-Not-Want-Not Chicken Stock (p. 246) or 10 c. canned broth

1 ½ c. sliced carrots

¾ c. sliced celery

1 onion, chopped

1 bay leaf

¾ t. freshly ground black pepper

1 t. dried thyme leaves

Roasted chicken (skinned, pulled off bone, and broken up into bite-size pieces)

3 c. cooked rice OR 3 c. egg noodles, cooked al dente

2 T. lime juice from little green squeezy bottle

Salt to taste

In a big stockpot, add chicken broth, carrots, celery, onion, bay leaf, and black pepper. Pour thyme leaves in palm of your hand and crush with other palm in a twisting motion, letting crushed leaves fall into the pot. Bring to boil, then simmer for 15 minutes.

Add chicken and then rice or noodles, and salt to taste. (If I make it with rice, I start with a teaspoon of salt and season to taste from there. With noodles, I start with ½ teaspoon of salt.) Heat through. Take off heat and stir in lime juice.