It’s that time of year. Brrr…it’s cold outside. 🥶 Which means, the soup making begins. Here is a classic Mexican chicken soup recipe for the soul, called Caldo de Pollo. It is really easy to make, just follow my recipe below. Feel free to make it your own.

Ingredients:

• 1 whole organic chicken or a package of already cut up breast and drumsticks like these.
• 16 cups of water
• 3 garlic cloves minced
• 1 tbsp of salt and 1/2 tsp of pepper or to taste
• 1 tbsp of Italian seasoning or a mixture of basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme, parsley if you don’t have Italian seasoning
• 4 large carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks
• 4 celery sticks, chopped into large chunks
• 4 large potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters
• 4 corn on the cobs, cut into thirds
• 1 zucchini, chopped into large chunks
• 1 squash, chopped into large chunks
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1/2 a bunch fresh cilantro, chopped
• 2 limes for soup and 1 lime for serving

Directions:
Cut up your whole chicken. Here’s how! Then place all of the pieces in a large stock pot. Or get already cut up pieces of chicken (breasts and drumsticks) from H‑E‑B or Central Market like this one. I would take off most of the skin mainly on the drumsticks. Add the water, fresh garlic, salt, pepper, all herbs/spices. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low. Simmer for 2 hours. Now take the chicken out, shred it up and put it back in the pot. Then add in all of the veggies (carrots, celery, potatoes, zucchini, squash, corn and onion). Turn up the heat to a low to medium boil and cook for another 45 minutes or until all vegetables are tender. Stir in juice from two of the limes and add the chopped cilantro 5 minutes before serving. Make sure to take out all of the bones and any skin left. Taste the soup, add more salt/pepper at this time only if you think it needs it. I don’t like to add extra salt in mine but you make it how you want. Use the extra lime to cut into wedges for topping on single servings. Enjoy!

Additions:
You can always eat this with some Mexican rice and corn tortillas slathered with butter on them. Yum! Just an idea for those not looking to cut back on carbs or butter. LOL! I also like to add some avocado slices.

For a quick version: add 8 cups of chicken bone broth with 8 cups of water with already cooked rotisserie chicken and all of the same vegetables and spices. Then cook for 30 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Enjoy!

Are you curious about making your own bone broth? Here is a simple recipe to follow.

A funny story about drinking bone broth instead of coffee for a week.