Spicy Chicken Soup

As a kid, dinner was usually a little haphazard at our house. We usually ate a big breakfast together every morning, but come suppertime, everyone sort of fended for themselves. Except on Friday. Every Friday evening, Mom made a special meal for us to eat together as we welcomed the Sabbath in. She’d light candles (which sounds Jewish now that I think of it), and put out the nice dishes. These meals weren’t big, but they were always delicious. She’d make some sort of fantastic soup, like homemade chicken noodle (yes, she made the noodles), white bean chili, vegetarian beef stew, creamy potato… you get the idea. Then we’d have cheese and crackers and maybe donuts for desert if we were lucky. I loved those meals.

But somehow, I never caught onto how my mom made these perfect soups. She often followed recipes, but frequently just threw stuff together. I can do that in a frying pan pretty well, but for whatever reason I’ve been intimidated by free-styling soup since I started cooking. UNTIL NOW! The cold weather up here in the mountains begs for hot bowls of soup for supper. I was sick a couple months back, and I realized I was the only person that would make myself the soup I craved. I made a really good vegetable soup (if I do say so myself) and finally, the ice was broken.

Since then, I’ve been doing at least one or two soups a week, and they are not very difficult at all! I don’t even know why I’ve psyching myself out for so long. Some of the soups have been better than others, but earlier this week, we definitely had a winner. I was craving my mom’s aforementioned white bean chili, but was lacking several of the ingredients; namely the white beans. However, I did have some veggie chicken, pinto beans, and some tasty green vegetables. A jalapeno added the perfect amount of heat. White bean chili? No. Yummy soup? Yes.

Spicy Chicken Soup
Serves 6-8

3 Tbls extra virgin olive oil
½ a red onion chopped
1 green bell pepper chopped
1 jalapeno pepper finely chopped
2 quarts hot water
2 lbs can Worthington FriChik
1 zucchini chopped
2 tsp. dried oregano
2 Tbls McKay’s Chicken Seasoning
1 individual package of Sazón Goya
salt


Heat olive oil over medium low heat in pot. Add onions and peppers and sauté for three to four minutes.


Add water, FriChik and zucchini and heat to a low boil.

Stir in oregano, chicken seasoning, Sazón Goya, and salt to taste. Cover and simmer for at least 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Tips: If you’re not into spicy food, you can omit the jalapeno or use only a portion of it. McKay’s is the chicken seasoning I always use (it’s vegetarian), but a different brand would work fine, or you can simply use some chicken broth instead of water.