Chicken Vermont Soup

I don’t know where this soup gets its name. My grandmother used to make it all the time and it became a staple for me while in college. It was easy and inexpensive and I always had lots of leftovers to freeze and reheat when the mood hit me.

I don’t know where you live, but where I live its damn cold right now, so when I was planning my meals for the week soup was on the top of the list!

I had a big heaping bowl of it last night when I got home from my workout and it hit the spot. I instantly fell asleep. Like for real. I ate the soup in bed while watching the Bachelor and crashed with a full belly.  You’ll notice the picture is taken from my bed, and part of Ratchet is visible.

Chicken Vermont Soup

Grandma Caperna original

1 - 46 oz can of tomato juice

2 - 46 oz cans of chicken broth (I just used bullion cubes)

1 box of frozen chopped spinach

1-2 pieces of chicken

Baby carrots

2 - 14.5oz cans of diced tomatoes – plain no spices added

Pastini noodles – about ½ box

Season with s&p

Parmesan cheese

Basically you just throw all this stuff in the pot and let it cook.  I start with the juices and then throw in the spinach. It can be frozen, it will break apart quickly.  Cut about ½ small bag of baby carrots into bit sized pieces and dump into the soup. Add 2 cans of diced tomatoes.  Let simmer on cooktop for about 30 minutes.

Cut chicken up into bit sized pieces and you can just throw them into the soup raw. They’ll boil really quickly.  Let soup simmer. Once carrots have softened (just try one!) bring soup to a boil and add about ½ box of pastini. Be careful when you do this, they’re going to get bigger so don’t think that because you’re putting small pasta in the soup you need more!  I do this all the time and wind up adding more chicken broth to the pot.  When you’re at the supermarket just look for the smallest noodles you can find! I generally like Stelline but Ben requested something a little bigger this time around so I picked up some Ditalini Rigati and it worked nicely! don’t be overwhelmed by these names, see the below chart or just buy the smallest pasta you see in aisle. season with salt and pepper as necessary.

image from barilla pasta's website

 

Once pasta is cooked, spoon yourself out a bowl and top with some parmesan cheese! Enjoy. 

Quick story: one time when I was making this at school I had mentioned to a friend that I felt like I was gaining weight (yeah right, I weighed 112lbs, ha!) and she suggested that I not add parm to the top of my soup. I told her to fuck off. For real people, cheese makes even good things better!