Lemon Pepper Chicken Soup

Some people say that your soup is only going to be as good as your stock, and that store bought stock is not really an option if you want a really good soup. If you read this blog at all, you probably know that I disagree with this statement, and have no problem using store bought stock in most of my soups. Most of my soups though, are loaded with lots of stuff, and the broth isn’t really the star. This soup however, making your own broth is essential because the broth IS the soup. It’s loaded with spicy peppercorns, savory parmesan cheese, and bright lemon flavors. I get this soup as takeout when it’s been a long week, but I decided to make it from scratch last week. It worked out well because I was sick over the weekend, but I had a ton of this soup to help make me feel better!

After you make your stock with extra parm and pepper, load all this stuff in there, along with the chicken from the stock making.

Mix it in AFTER the stock has cooled. Then when it’s time to serve, just heat it up and add rice.

This soup is pure medicine.

It was a ton better than the take out version too!

I’m not going to detail the stock process, because that isn’t really what I do here, and there is plenty of other places on the internet to read about that stuff. Use your favorite stock recipe but triple the amount of peppercorns in it, and add at least 2 rinds from parmesan wedges. Once the stock had cooled (2 gallons worth), I added 2 cups of grated parm, 1/4 cup of lemon zest, 1/4 cup of lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons of fresh cracked black pepper. I also chopped up the chicken I used making the broth and added it back to the broth (about 3 cups worth). When serving the soup, I heated it up and mixed cooked rice into each bowl.