Lorene's Chicken Soup

Drop about 1 - 2 T regular (not virgin) olive oil on top of this mixture and kind of stir it up.

Set the fire on med-low; place lid on pot. After 5 minutes add a bay leaf and 3 or 4 ready cooked chicken breasts. Just lay the frozen chicken on top of the veggies and let it ’thaw’ that way. After about 10 minutes, lift the chicken pieces off and place them on a cutting board. Cut them into little bite-sized pieces and place them back into the stock pot. Add 1 package of low-sodium chicken stock. IF I want to add penne pasta, I add 1/2 a box of that PLUS a couple extra cups of water. Now add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon per quart of stock of Penzey’s spice “Bouquet Garni”. If you don’t have that the ingredients in it are “rosemary, thyme, oregano. basil, dill weed marjoram, sage, and tarragon” so you could play around with tads of those instead. I also add a wee bit of cilantro. I also add coarse sea salt and black cracked pepper to taste.

Don’t forget to taste the broth, since everyone’s will need your own special touch.

Once this aroma totally penetrates your kitchen, add some fresh parsley about 3 minutes before serving. It looks so pretty in the middle of the pot.