Canning Nature's Cold & Flu Remedy - Chicken Soup

In this episode, The Canning Diva teaches you how to home can Chicken Soup to help ward off seasonal crud so you may stay healthy all winter long. Also known as Nature’s Penicillin, The Canning Diva shares the many healthy benefits of consuming Chicken Soup and the soup's amazing history so listeners may feel confident storing this natural remedy in a jar  long-term. 

Diane will also share with you a variety of ingredient substitutions so you may create the soup according to your taste buds; as well as teach you the math required to safely do so. Lastly, The Canning Diva will share with you the secret to safely preserving your family’s favorite version of this timeless classic, helping to give your family what it needs and loves any time of the year.

Transcript

Intro - thank you for tuning in for a new season of Canning with The Diva!

I want to thank all of you for tuning in and for your patience while I worked diligently to create new recipes, work on my 4th book and - on a personal note, selling my home and purchasing another. If you know anything about packing and moving, you know the tedious and time-consuming task it is, so I thank you for your graciousness while I sorted my life out so I can give you all my undivided attention. I have some amazing things in-store for you in 2022 and throughout Season 2 of Canning with The Diva!. 

So let’s get started…

In today’s episode, Nature’s Cold & Flu Remedy, I am really excited to teach you how to home can Chicken Soup to help ward off the seasonal crud so you may keep your immune system working in optimal condition, or to provide you with warm relief if you do happen to catch a cold or flu bug. Also in today’s episode, I am really excited to give you some history on how this amazing soup got its name as Nature’s Penicillin - it has also been called Jewish Penicillin - for its anti-inflammatory properties. We all know it has been called The Soup for Your Soul - and for those of us who love Chicken Soup, we all know why. It is that warm, comforting feeling we get while sipping a hot bowl of this time-honored goodness.

Lastly, it is my pleasure to share with my fellow canners a variety of ingredient substitutions so you may create a version of Chicken soup that satisfies your taste buds or your dietary needs. And hey, if you have your favorite family Chicken Soup recipe, I will share with you the secret of how to preserve it in jars for years of enjoyment and health.

The History of Chicken Soup

So check this out - Chicken Soup dates all the way back to Chinese antiquity in the second century BC. The earliest recorded evidence of chicken soup being used as a therapeutic dish can be found in Chinese medical text, Huangdi Neijing. This record declared chicken soup as a “yang food” – a warming dish – to which different therapeutic herbs can be added to cure various diseases. 

Chicken soup is given to women after pregnancy and to elderly people. Both groups are considered to be in the need of energy-giving yang food, which is believed to transport “energy” around the body and have an invigorating effect. In Greece, the physician Galen in the second century AD recommended chicken soup as a cure for migraine, leprosy, constipation and fever. 

While origins of this Jewish staple are actually found in ancient Greece and China, in the Jewish history, Chicken soup is the undoubtable symbol of Jewish cuisine. Although chicken was not always readily available in every Eastern European Jewish community, there was one day a year when every family, no matter their status, prepared Chicken Soup for Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. 

A few centuries later, in the Babylonian Talmud, a story refers to the chicken of Rabbi Abba (175–247) which, when cooked, served him as a general remedy. Towards the end of the Middle Ages, a Jewish philosopher and physician, named Moses, recommended chicken soup for the weak and the sick. But chicken soup remained an infrequently eaten dish until the 15th century. Thankfully society revived the art of raising chickens to compensate for other meat shortages so people began to create and eat chicken soup regularly.

Some of the many health benefits of consuming the broth of chicken soup is that it is rich with essential fatty acids and protein. Both help your body build and repair healthy muscle, bone, skin, and blood cells. Chicken broth is also a rich source of important minerals like iron. 

Chicken is also high in tryptophan, which helps your body produce serotonin that can enhance your mood and give you the feeling of 'comfort' which is how chicken soup got classified as a “comfort food”. The main vegetables used in chicken soup, such as carrots, celery, and onion, contain vitamins C and K, and other antioxidants and minerals. These vitamins, antioxidants and minerals help build a healthy immune system to fight off viruses and will also help your body recover more quickly if you contract an illness. 

The most noticeable benefit provided to us when we consume hot chicken soup is just that - it is hot! The steam can open up airways, making it easier to breathe, which is a huge relief if you suffer from a stuffy nose or congestion when battling the flu or cold. Chicken soup also has a mild anti-inflammatory effect that can help relax your muscles and soothe the discomforts of cold symptoms - so say goodbye to those achy muscles and hello to vitamins, cozy comfort and throat soothing yumminess in every jar!

Chicken Soup Canning Recipe

Today I am going to share with you my mom’s recipe which has been served in our family for over 40 years. It makes about eight (8) Quarts or sixteen (16) Pints and you may even preserve any leftover broth to use when making rice or couscous down the road. Canning any leftover broth is also a great way to fill the canner space. 

Ingredients

8 quarts or 32 cups water

1 whole chicken cut in pieces – keep skin on and the bone in the chicken

3 Bay Leaves

5 to 10 garlic cloves, chopped fine or minced (in my book, the more the merrier but add the amount that suits your flavor pallet)

1 Tablespoon Dried Basil or 2 Tablespoons Fresh Basil chopped fine

1 Tablespoon sea salt – optional if you are on a low sodium diet

1 Tablespoon oregano

2 teaspoons black pepper

1 large vidalia onion, diced

6 large carrots, chopped

4 stalks celery – including the leaves, chopped

1 pint jar of Diane’s Basil Diced Tomatoes (for my spin on mom’s recipe) or 3 large tomatoes, cored and diced

Using a deep stock pot, add water, all chicken pieces, the 3 bay leaves, garlic, basil, salt, oregano, black pepper and onions, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and boil gently until chicken is cooked through – approximately 20-30 minutes depending on the size of the chicken pieces. 

Be sure to stir the chicken from time to time to rotate the bottom pieces to the top. You do not want to leave the chicken undisturbed because depending on your burner strength, you can scorch or burn the chicken resting on the bottom of a stock pot. I have done it before and I had to waste all of the yummy chicken broth to remove the burnt flavor that permeated EVERYTHING! Ugh  I do not recommend it..  

Once the chicken is cooked through, remove chicken pieces and rest on a cutting board to cool. Now there may be foam resting at the top of your broth, many want to skim the foam off top of water. Others prefer to leave it. I personally examine the foam for impurities - if it looks clean, I mix it in and keep it. If it looks full of gunk, off it goes. It honestly depends on the type of chicken you use - organic and minimally processed foams less than other commercial brands. Foam is not your enemy - so you decide. Afterall, your kitchen, your rules.

Keep the stock pot of broth at a gentle boil and add the carrots, celery and tomatoes, whether fresh or home canned. Stir and boil for 5 minutes. 

While the vegetables are boiling, prepare the chicken by removing all the skin and bones. Using either a knife or your fingers, cut/tear chicken into bite size pieces until all meat (both light and dark) has been removed from the carcass. Add cut chicken to the stock pot and boil for an additional 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

Using a slotted spoon, evenly distribute the solids from the soup into each jar, filling each jar half full. Once distributed, ladle the hot broth into each jar, being sure to leave a 1” headspace.  

Wipe each rim with a warm wash cloth dipped in vinegar.  (The vinegar cuts through the grease from the chicken.)  Place lid and ring on each jar and hand tighten.

Now depending on your elevation, process the jars in a pressure canner at 10 psi for a weighted gauge canner and 11 psi for a dial gauge. If you live in a higher elevation, you will need to use 15 psi, so be sure to check your elevation and use the elevation chart on my website at www.canningdiva.com to ensure you have your canner working at the right temperature to kill any harmful food borne pathogens. Process pints for 75 minutes and quarts for 90 minutes. 

After processing, let your pressure canner return to zero pressure naturally. This can take up to a half hour. Once you remove your canner lid, let your jars rest an additional 10 minutes before removing the jars from the canner to cool.

Substitutions

Now many of you may prefer to add additional vegetables like green beans, peas, corn, or potatoes to your chicken soup. Feel free to do so! Just keep in mind the ratio of solid to liquids and be prepared for your yield to increase overall. Let me share some measurements that will assist you:

To start, if you wish to add 2 additional cups worth of vegetables, you will need to increase the water by 4 additional cups. Use this ratio and prepare, when doing so, to yield an additional quart (or 2 pints) of soup.

So for instance if you wish to add one cup of corn kernels and one cup of green beans, add an additional 4 cups of water at the start of the recipe. If you add one cup of peas, one cup of diced potatoes, one cup of corn kernels and one cup of green beans for a total of 4 cups of solids, you must add an additional 8 cups of water to the recipe.

See...Easy peasy! Math is fun :) 

Oh and if you have a particular herb or seasoning you prefer to add, or wish to omit one I have listed above, feel free to do so. Just be sure to taste the broth as you go to avoid over, or under seasoning. Need advice, be sure to pop into my canning group, Canning, Dehydrating and Long-Term Food Storage on Facebook and ask the members. Or shoot me an email at diane@canningdiva.com and I will be sure to help you out.

Now, for those of you who already have a family-favorite recipe, not to worry, you may preserve it in a jar. You simply must ensure you have a 50% higher ratio of liquids to solids. There really isn’t a wrong vegetable to add, I have even added kale and cabbage to my chicken soup - even when canning. The flavor was stronger because of the cabbage, so be sure you really like cabbage before adding it. The flavor grows stronger the longer it is in storage too so keep that in mind too. 

When preserving your own chicken soup recipe, filling your jars half-full of solids first, then liquid remains the same as well as using the max processing time of 75 minutes for pints and 90 minutes for quarts at 10psi or according to your elevation and canner type.

Well my friends, this concludes my first episode of season 2 of Canning with The Diva. I thank you so very much for tuning in and I look forward to next week where I will be talking about canning gorgeous gifts in a jar. With the holidays right around the corner, learn how to preserve delicious and visually appealing gifts to give this Thanksgiving and Christmas season. I will teach you how to use cranberries, a seasonal favorite, in recipes to preserve and share throughout the holidays as well as teach you how to preserve fun gift ideas like Cinnamon Apple Rings and Blueberry Pancake Syrup.

Until next time, Happy Canning everyone~

Xoxo

Diane, The Canning DIva