- Scientific Chicken Soup

Dear Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

We found all sorts of research about the effectiveness of chicken noodle soup for the ailing. This is from scientists who know.

Researchers at the University of Nebraska found that homemade chicken soup really does make you feel better when you're sick. It reduces congestion and inflammation by limiting the movement of white blood cells that produce infection-related mucus.

UCSF researchers found that our cravings for comfort food may be our body’s attempt to put a brake on chronic stress. Comfort foods are usually high-energy foods (with sugar and/or fat) like chicken soup, chocolate chip cookies, cheeseburgers or ice cream. Energy-filled foods help us “stay in the game”. In an animal study, the researchers found that “glucocorticoids would both prompt vigilance to threats and send a signal to the brain of a chronically stressed animal to seek high-energy food. If it were successful in finding such food, stress and its attendant feelings would be terminated.”

Research published in the journal Chest (2000) proved in the laboratory that chicken soup has anti-inflammatory properties that help clear the upper respiratory tract, but it’s unclear exactly which of the ingredients are directly responsible. It seems cooking them up together combined to “achieve their beneficial effects”. The researchers used a homemade recipe they dubbed “Grandma’s soup”. They even published the recipe as part of the “Methods” section.

Here it is with our hound print on it:

Scientific Chicken Soup
Me's Independent Rating: 3 of 3

5-6 lb stewing hen or baking chicken
1 package of chicken wings
3 large onions
1 large sweet potato
3 parsnips (we've never had these on hand to try it, but our elder man would like it that way)
2 turnips (same as above, we're not turnip kind of hounds)
11 to 12 large carrots
5 to 6 celery stalks (with leaves)
1 bunch of parsley
salt and pepper to taste.

Rinse off the chicken and cover it with water in a pot. Bring to a boil. Add the chicken wings, onions, sweet potato, parsnips, turnips, and carrots. Boil 30-45 minutes. Remove the chicken and reserve for another purpose. Add the parsley and celery. Cook 30 minutes.

Serve like this - with colorful chunks of vegetables in golden broth, speckled with parsley. Or, for the sick and ailing, just serve the broth. Or, do as the scientists recommend, puree the broth and vegetables at this point and salt and pepper to taste.

Freeze some for the day of the unexpected scratchy throat.

Elias' Notes: We freeze it in pint canning jars with an inch of space at the top - put it in the freezer without a cover. Then when it's frozen, put a cover on tightly. That allows the liquid to expand as it freezes. Thaw in the fridge a day ahead, or simmer the jar in a pan of water to thaw it out.

Guthrie's Notes: We accidentally used turkey meat from the freezer, thinking it was chicken. It worked out fine. (We used up the chicken from whence came the broth when we made fajitas mentioned a few blogs back.)