Italian Chicken and Vegetable Soup

I have been craving Italian Wedding soup!  I think the spices and little meatballs make a wonderful soup.  I love the little pearl pasta too!

I didn’t want to make a big pot of soup since Big is out of town, so I searched for a good recipe that would serve one or two.

Williams-Sonoma published a book titled, Cooking for Yourself and it has some great recipes in it.  The recipe for Mexican Vegetable Soup was adapted from this publication.

I actually ended up with an Italian version of this soup.  I am listing the original recipe first and at the bottom are my changes.
 

Mexican Vegetable Soup

1 TBL vegetable oil
1 small leek, white and pale green parts only, halved and thinly sliced *
1 small carrot, peeled and diced
1/2 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced**
1 small clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup Roma tomato, chopped
2 cups (16 fl. oz.) chicken broth
1 cup (8 fl. oz.) water
salt to taste
1 bone -in chicken thigh***
1 small zucchini, diced
1 TBL chopped fresh cilantro****
3/4 cup fresh (or frozen) corn kernels

1.) Heat the vegetable oil in a saucepan over medium heat.  Add the leek, carrot, pepper and garlic and saute until the vegetables are softened, about 5 minutes.   Add the tomato and saute until the flavor develops, about 3 minutes.   Add the broth and water.  Bring to a simmer and season with the salt.  Add the chicken, cover partially, and simmer gently until the chicken is cooked through, about 20 minutes.

I love the smell of onions and garlic while they saute

2.) Using tongs, transfer the chicken to a cutting board and let cool.  Add the zucchini and cilantro to the soup and simmer gently until the zucchini is just tender, 5 – 10 minutes.  Stir in the corn and simmer until tender about 3 minutes.

3.) Remove and discard the skin from the chicken thigh and then remove the meat from the bone.  Shred or coarsely chop the meat, stir into the soup and heat through.  Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Here are my changes:

*      I used an onion instead of a leek.

**     I didn’t have a jalapeno, but did have a long yellow hot pepper.

***   I used leftover chicken from my Sticky Chicken recipe.  I tossed it in when I added the zucchini and corn.  The chicken just needed to heat up.

****  I didn’t have cilantro.  Since I was aiming for an Italian version, I added about a TBL of an Italian herb blend.

This is a great soup and I know I will make it again.  I love a good spicy soup, especially in the winter.

I hope you will give this a try!  I know you will love it!