Come-to-the-Rescue Chicken Soup

FujiDaughter with her little brother, 24 years ago.

I returned home from the hospital the day after our baby was born to discover both my husband and FujiDaughter had the flu. It was February, and the weather was unusually cold for San Diego. Our only source of heat was a little space heater in the living room, so I lay on the couch while my husband and FujiDaughter rolled out blankets for beds on the floor in front of the heater. We piled blankets on the baby in his little portable crib, and we all felt sorry for ourselves together.

Then the doorbell rang. It was my friend Paulette who had delivered her FOURTH child a few weeks before, a beautiful little boy born with Down’s Syndrome. She had come to collect my sick daughter and our dirty laundry. She didn’t ask, she just did. In return (and somehow I don’t think it was a fair trade), she left us a pot of steaming chicken soup. Paulette checked on us multiple times over the next few days, returned our laundry and took away another batch, and hung on to our daughter until my husband was well enough to take over. Meanwhile, we survived on her soup, which tasted unbelievably good at a time when nothing else seemed even edible. I fact, I’m convinced that Paulette’s pot of soup worked some medicinal magic and saved us from total ruin.

Paulette and I live more than half a continent apart now, but I often think of her and her selfless sacrifice at a time when I really needed a friend. It could not have been an easy time in her life, but that didn’t stop her from caring for us. A wise man noted, “God does love us, and he does watch over us, but it is usually through another person that he meets our needs.”

A few weeks ago when I was thinking of FujiDaughter’s impending delivery, I got a sudden craving for Paulette’s Come-to-the-Rescue Chicken Soup. I made up a batch and took half of it to the Fuji household. It’s a pretty basic, simple recipe, but there’s nothing like it when you’re feeling under the weather.

Start by cutting up a whole chicken. I’m convinced that part of the healing power of this soup lies in using the whole chicken rather than just chicken parts. I do take most of the skin off before I cook it, however.

2. Take out chicken and onion. Discard the onion and shred the chicken. Add seasonings to the broth and simmer for 1-2 minutes:
1 tsp. thyme
1 tsp. rosemary
1 tsp. sage
Salt and pepper to taste