Paleo in PDX

This chicken soup packs a powerful punch and makes me happy. It is incredibly nourishing and healing thanks to the bone broth, veggies, and spices. It even has a dose of medicinal reishi mushroom powder. I was fortunate to receive a bag of reishi mushrooms from friends that grew and dried them, so made my own reishi powder (note: the dry container for the Vitamix works awesome for this). If you’re unfamiliar, know that reishi mushrooms are great for overall wellness, stress relief, immune support, and more. It is a great addition to chicken soup, but don’t fret if you don’t have it. You can easily omit it from the recipe or find it HERE. Also, if you’re wondering, it doesn’t really have any noticeable flavor either.

If you’re pressed for time, know that you can use pre-cooked or leftover chicken breasts (or rotisserie chicken) and skip cooking it in the broth. It’ll do the trick, but I do recommend cooking the chicken fresh in the broth, if you can. It’s more flavorful and tender, which makes it easy to shred into the soup. I find that it stretches further too because of how much it breaks up.

Cheers and enjoy!

Ingredients:

• ~2 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 8-10 cups chicken bone broth, preferably homemade, plus more if needed
• 2 bay leaves
• 2-3 tsp grass-fed ghee or other fat of choice
• 2 large carrots, chopped
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 large sweet potato, peeled and cubed
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1.5 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 Tbsp reishi mushroom powder, optional (find HERE)
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• 1 bunch Italian kale, chopped
• Sea salt and black pepper, to taste
• Filtered water, to taste, if needed

Directions:

1. Add the chicken breasts, broth, and bay leaves to a large stock pot. Make sure there’s enough broth to cover the chicken completely. Bring to a boil and then simmer over medium-low heat for 30-60 minutes or until chicken breasts are very tender.
2. Once done, remove chicken from pot and set aside to cool. Drain the broth into a separate pot or large bowl, and set aside for later. Be sure to remove the bay leaves as well.
3. Next, add the ghee to the stock pot and melt over medium heat. Add the onion, celery, and carrot, and sauté a few minutes. Then, add the sweet potato and garlic, and season to taste with sea salt and black pepper. Sauté a couple minutes more.
4. Shred the cooled chicken and add back to the pot with the broth. If needed, add a bit more broth and/or filtered water. Then, add the ground ginger, turmeric, lemon juice, and reishi powder, if using. Simmer over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes or until sweet potatoes are tender.
5. Lastly, add the chopped kale and stir. Let cook 2-3 minutes more or until kale is slightly softened. Taste and adjust seasonings, as desired.

Note: the shredded chicken absorbs more broth after sitting overnight in the refrigerator. In this case, you may want to add more broth when reheating leftovers, but it’s just as tasty eaten as a thicker soup. It all depends on how brothy you want it.