Sunday, March 27, 2022

Homemade Italian Chicken Bow Tie Soup for a Large Family

This soup recipe is basically an assembling of flavors that I know my family likes.

I frequently purchase ready-made roast chicken from Costco and other grocery stores. Our family is large, so I usually buy three chickens.

When we're done with the chickens, I use the carcasses to make chicken soup broth. You can use any chicken broth. However, I've prepared enough food for two days by purchasing or making three roast chickens and then making soup.

A Bowl of Italian Chicken Bow Tie Soup

Italian Chicken Bow Tie Soup Ingredients for a Large Family

  • Chicken Broth (from leftover cooked chickens, or you can use 7 boxes of store-bought chicken broth)
  • Chicken pieces cut up from the above-cooked chickens, or use 3 separate chicken breasts, and oven bake them (don't let them brown), then cut up into small biteable pieces
  • Hot Water
  • 6 Bouillon Chicken Cubes
  • An Entire Medium Sized Bag of Carrots
  • Full stock of Celery
  • 1 Large Onion
  • 7 Garlic Cloves
  • 1 Green Pepper
  • 4 Tablespoons of Butter
  • 500 grams of Pasta Bow Ties (about a box and a half, with a box holding 340grams)
  • 5 Bay Leaves
  • 3 Teaspoons of Oregano (or whatever amount you prefer)
  • 3 Teaspoons of Basil (or whatever amount you prefer)
  • 5 Teaspoons of Parsley (or whatever amount you prefer)
Step One - Get the Broth Ready

In a large pot, prepare the following: (I use about a 14-quart soup pot - seen below). I fill the pot to about 3/4 with homemade soup for our big family.

This big soup pot feeds our large family - I fill it 3/4 full with homemade soup
  • Boil the leftover whole chickens, then screen the meat out through a strainer. Put the meat aside so you can pull off all usable bites to go back in the soup. I let the chicken meat cool, then put it in the soup near the end.
  • If using the chicken carcasses to make the broth, I boil it for several hours.
  • If you're using store-bought chicken broth, put 7 boxes of broth in the pot - you could even use more!
  • Add 6 bouillon chicken cubes
Step Two - The Carrots

I add the carrots next because they take longer to cook. I use a whole bag of medium carrots. Scrape them, cut them into biteable pieces, and then add them to the soup broth.

Step Three - Lightly Fry These Ingredients

In a frying pan, melt 4 tablespoons of butter, then lightly fry:
  • An entire stock of celery, chopped into biteable pieces
  • A large green pepper, cut into biteable pieces
  • A whole large onion, chopped into fine, ground pieces (I use a mini-chopper)
  • 7 whole garlic cloves chopped fine (I put them into the mini-chopper as well)
I usually fry them on medium heat for about ten minutes, constantly stirring. Put the entire mixture into the soup broth. 

Step Four - The Pasta Bow Ties
  • Boil the pasta bow ties separately until nearly fully cooked
  • Drain and rinse the pasta in cold water
  • Put the pasta in the soup broth
I always cook the pasta separately, then rinse them to reduce the amount of starch in the soup.

Step Five - Add the Chicken
  • Use the chicken from the carcass that you set aside or the chicken you made in the oven. If you're using oven-baked chicken, don't let it brown - you want the color of the soup to be light.
  • Be sure to cut the chicken into small biteable pieces
  • If you're using chicken from the carcass, double-check that there are no bones! I catch bones while pulling the meat away from the carcasses and when I cut it into small pieces. The bones reveal themselves when cutting. Take your time, and be extra careful.
Step Six - The Flavoring

I never measure this part; I simply add the amount I think makes the soup taste right for my family. The measurements below are merely for your own guidance.
  • Add 3 teaspoons of Oregano (or whatever amount you want)
  • Add 3 teaspoons of Basil (or whatever amount you want)
  • Add 4 teaspoons of  Parsley (or whatever amount you want)
  • Add 5 Bay Leaves for flavor (don't eat them)
  • Salt to taste (optional - I don't salt, I allow each person to salt their own bowls)
Step Seven - Add The Boiling Water

At this point, I boil water using my tea kettle and pour the boiling hot water into the soup pot until it reaches about three-quarters full from the top of the pot.

Leave it on the stove on low heat, and let everyone eat soup all day long!

Homemade Italian Chicken Bow Tie Soup for a Large Family






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12 comments:

  1. Barbara, I love making a big pot of homemade chicken vegetable soup and eating it over the next few days. It’s such a quick, easy, nutritious and delicious meal, and reheats beautifully (and quickly!). I make mine with bone broth and lots of veggies, but often without chicken meat (using a high quality, very flavorful bone broth makes a huge difference here!). Although I sometimes add cauliflower “rice,” when I’m willing to splurge on some extra carbs I sometimes add some broken strands of reduced-carb, high-fiber linguini for chicken vegetable noodle soup, similar to yours. However, I enjoy playing with seasonings, so mine never tastes exactly the same twice, lol. Sometimes I’ll add a mix of herbs, other times I might add coconut milk and curry powder. I’ve made lots of different variations and John and I enjoy the variety, since I make it often. But I were feeding a large family, like yours, I’m sure I would do the same thing as you - find a flavor profile the whole family enjoys and stick to it. It sounds like your recipe is a big crowd-pleaser! Thanks so much for sharing it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'll be giving bone broth a try now, thank you. Also, thanks for the cauliflower rice and high-fiber linguini tip, I'll try that too. I know what you mean about not tasting the same way twice; I've had to try to keep this one fairly the same because I have so many people in this house and I'm nervous to 'fix what ain't broke' lol. Oh, and coconut milk, great idea!

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  2. This looks delicious! I make my own chicken broth but, strangely enough, I don't think I've ever made my own chicken soup. Pinning this as a reminder so I'll do it later (I'd do it today because it suddenly turned cold and snowy this weekend. But I don't have noodles. Darn.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you have a bit of barley, you could try that? Or some rice? Thanks Dawn :)

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  3. There is nothing better than home made chicken soup. We often buy a BBQ chicken from the grocery store and then eat what we want from that and then put the rest into soup. A quick and inexpensive meal that just makes you feel so good inside. Thanks for your recipe I will amend mine to add some of your ingredients and make it even better!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've just recently starting making the effort to make soup with leftover meat bones - I don't know what took me so long, but I'll certainly being doing this on a regular basis. I grew up with my moms homemade soup, so I had no legitimate reason not to do it. I think I'm more comfortable discovering the flavors my family likes.

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  4. Looks so delicious. My dad was the cook in my family growing up. When my folks & my uncle all came to visit for a son's high school graduation, I cooked a complete turkey dinner to feed everyone easily the day they arrived. Then my dad took the turkey carcass and boiled it up for broth. Before I knew it, he had created homemade turkey noodle soup which handily fed us all a great lunch the next day. Since then, I have made turkey noodle and chicken noodle homemade soup many times. It's delicious, nutritious, and feeds a large group. Thanks for your recipe. I've never used bow tie pasta noodles or Italian seasonings.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I can practically smell your dads soup through the internet :) - I'll be doing this more often, especially since the price of food has gone up. I turned my chicken soup into an Italian version mainly for my hubby since he's into Italian foods. Thank goodness everyone likes it.

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  5. Oh!! Wow!! This is perfect for a day like today, cold and snowing in the last couple of days in March. There is nothing better than homemade soup. I never thought of frying the ingredients like you did, but I'm going to try it next time I make soup. Thanks for the recipe Barbara

    By the way I love your soup pot!!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sam, thank you! I fry it more or less on lower heat - I think I read that tip somewhere, but I honestly can't remember. It takes me longer to make soup that has noodles too, because I boil them and rinse them separately. I'm not keen on just throwing noodles or onions etc, directly in without preparing separately, but I'm sure it's fine?

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  6. We love homemade chicken noodle soup and I like to use the bowtie pasta too when I have it, simply because I like the pretty shape. When I am boiling chicken for a casserole or a meal that doesn't use the broth, I freeze the broth for future use in meal that has a chicken broth base like chicken noodle soup or chicken & dumplins. Your chicken noodle soup recipe is similar to mine. The only immediate difference I see is that I do add fresh spinach to mine. I know your recipe is delicious and the perfect dinner to feed a hungry family.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, I like the idea of fresh spinach, I'll have to try that!

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