Chicken Minestrone with Homemade Broth

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Nutritional Info

Servings Per Recipe: 10
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 272.5

Total Fat: 3.8 g
Cholesterol: 41.7 mg
Sodium: 2,211.6 mg
Total Carbs: 27.8 g
Dietary Fiber: 8.5 g
Protein: 32.5 g

View full nutritional breakdown of Chicken Minestrone with Homemade Broth calories by ingredient

Introduction

When a recipe calls for boneless, skinless chicken, save money by buying a whole chicken and de-boning it yourself. Then save even more money and increase the nutritional content of your soups by saving your chicken bones in the freezer to make your own broth. When a recipe calls for boneless, skinless chicken, save money by buying a whole chicken and de-boning it yourself. Then save even more money and increase the nutritional content of your soups by saving your chicken bones in the freezer to make your own broth.

Number of Servings: 10

Ingredients

Chicken bones(enough to almost fill your crock pot)

1 chicken breast (or about a pound of other chicken meat)

1/2 medium chopped onion

2-3 cloves garlic or garlic powder, to taste.

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp celery salt (or use fresh celery)

1/2 tsp black pepper

2 tbsp parsley flakes

2 bay leaves

1/4 tsp all spice

1 tsp beef bouillon

2 tsp chicken bouillon

1 med zucchini, chopped (about 1 1/2 lbs)

1 1/2 medium tomatoes, chopped

7 beet leaves and stems (use spinach if don't have any)

7 swiss chard leaves and stems (4 spinach per chard leaf if you substitute)

1 14 oz can grean beans or 1 and 1/2 cup fresh from garden

1 cup black beans

1 cup kidney beans

1 cup great northern or navy beans

8 oz tomato sauce

Water

Directions

Save chicken bones in a container in the freezer until you have about enough to almost fill your crockpot.
When you have enough, defrost them and put in crockpot, with 1 lb chicken meat.
Cover with water, turn on pot and let it boil down over night.
The next morning, turn off the pot, get out a large stock pot and 2 bowls.
With a large slotted spoon, fish out the bones and meat and place in one of the bowls.
Strain the remaining broth through a tightly-woven strainer into the stock pot then refrigerate it overnight so the fat will solidify and can be easily removed.
Separate the meat from the bones (careful this will be HOT, you may want to let it cool about 15 minutes or so)
place the meat in the other bowl, and bones, fat, grisle, etc. in the trash. You should have about 1 1/2 lbs chicken when done.
Cover the meat and place in fridge overnight.
The next day, take out broth and skim fat off the top. Set the stock pot on stove to simmer and add chicken and spices to the stock.
Wash, chop and add veggies to the soup.
Chop the chard and beet stems and add to soup.
Add beans and tomato sauce and enough water to fill the pot.
Simmer until veggies are soft and flavors are melding. Then add 1 cup macaroni noodles simmer 7-10 minutes or until noodles are done.
Serve with a warm slice of whole wheat bread and cup of milk.
Makes 10 main course servings or 25 appetizer portions.

Number of Servings: 10

Recipe submitted by SparkPeople user DAWNA_MORTON.