Warm up with Lemon Chicken Soup

Soup and cold weather, just go hand-in-hand.

If you want a great recipe for evenings when you are short on time but want to prepare a delicious, home-cooked meal that tastes like you spent hours preparing it, let a pre-baked rotisserie chicken help you out.

By using the meat from a cooked rotisserie chicken from the grocery store in this recipe, the ease of preparation is elementary.

The lemon adds a tasty treat to a standard chicken noodle soup recipe. It is fresh, tangy and has a extra kick of Vitamin C. You can use any short pasta from your pantry as a substitute for spaghetti.

I took some to my dad who proclaimed the soup “simply delicious and can’t be beat.”

The recipe is from the Food Network and is courtesy of Giada De Laurentiis.

Lemon Chicken Soup with Spaghetti

6 cups low-sodium chicken broth

1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)

1 dried bay leaf

1 (2-inch) piece Parmesan cheese rind, optional

2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced into 1/4 inch pieces

1 cup spaghetti, broken into 2-inch pieces

2 cups diced cooked rotisserie chicken, preferably breast meat

1 cup grated Romano cheese

1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Kosher salt

In large stockpot, bring chicken broth, lemon juice, bay leaf and Parmesan rind, if using, to a boil over medium-high heat. Add the carrots and simmer until tender, about 5 to 8 minutes.

Add the broken pasta and cook until the pasta is tender, for about 4 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the chicken and heat through, about 2 to 3 minutes. Remove the bay leaf and the Parmesan rind and discard. Stir in 1/2 of the cheese and the parsley. Season to taste with salt. Ladle the soup into serving bowls, and sprinkle with the remaining cheese.