Here is a recipe everyone should have in their kitchen: Classic Chicken Soup

My kiddo woke up with a sore throat on Saturday morning. “It hurts a lot, Mom. But I’m still playing in my lacrosse game today!!”

“Okay,” I said. “But you’ll play the game and then come home and rest for the remainder of the weekend.”

He did just that. Scored 3 goals and assisted a few (on a rainy, chilly day). They won the game, and my lacrosse-obsessed son happily got his fill of playing. He’s very passionate about lacrosse, so it’s tough for me to take that away… even when the Mother in me says he should sit-it-out and get better instead. We chilled-out for the rest of the weekend, and he’s feeling a bit better with the exception of a pesky cold.

Sunday was a day to make my magical, healing, homemade, classic chicken soup. I love this recipe because it makes use of the entire chicken carcass in the soup, which adds an incredible amount of flavor (as it should) to chicken soup.

The kiddo is pretty opinionated about how he truly feels about dinner. He’s not afraid to tell me if he doesn’t care for it, and he’s also willing to share how he thinks I should adapt the recipe to make it better. With this soup, he was perfectly satisfied. Completely! He gobbled up every bit with some King’s Hawaiian rolls for dunking, and I’m happy to have leftovers for a couple of nights to come.

You might notice from the photos that there are no noodles in the soup. Noodles are completely optional. Add them, if you’d prefer to have a chicken noodle soup.

If you happen to be following the Weight Watchers plan, this soup can count as ZERO Freestyle SmartPoints per serving if you use chopped chicken breast instead of using the whole chicken!

Here are a few more chicken soup recipes you may enjoy: