Wagon Wheel Soup

This soup is inspired by a Pioneer Woman recipe, her Italian Chicken Soup, but I've made so many changes to it, I think I can officially call it my own.  

Soup in the middle of the summer is a little weird, but it is one of my hubby's favorite meals and I just felt like having it. 

Now start off by cleaning up from last night's dinner.  C'mon I know I'm not the only one that leaves the dishes til the morning. 

I use two pots when making this soup, a 5qt and a 7qt - make sure you are adequately prepared. 

Put two split chicken breasts in the 5qt pot and cover with 64 oz of chicken stock.

Bring this to a boil, then turn down the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes. While you are waiting for the chicken to cook, watch last nights episode of Real Housewives ;) After 30min has gone by, turn off the heat and let it sit another 30 min. 

Now enough monkey business, heat a small skillet over medium heat.  Once it is hot, add in oil and oregano.  Turn off the heat and stir for one minute.  I've made this a bunch of times, but today I burned the oregano :(  I guess I let my pan preheat too long.  No biggie, I dumped it out and did it again, without turning on the stove.  The residual heat from the pan will do the trick to get it right. 

Start chopping your veggies - onion, peppers, and celery.  

Put some olive oil in your 7qt pot and heat it over medium.  Saute those veggies for 10 min. 

Take the chicken out of the pot and let it cool a bit before you shred it.  Discard the skin and bones.  I used tongs and a fork to seperate the meat from the bones, then shredded it by hand.  I also turned the heat on the veggies down low, while I finished shredding the meat so they wouldn't burn.

Now turn the heat on the veggies back up to high, add in your bag of frozen corn, and carefully add in the chicken and the chicken stock.  Boil, then reduce the heat and simmer.

Fill that 5qt pot up with water to boil for the pasta.

You can use any shape of small pasta you want, but the soup gets its name from this pasta shape, so get it if you can (my normal grocery store stopped carrying it, but the other one in my area has it)

 
When the pasta is al dente (even a little less), drain it and add it to the soup pot.  Add in the cream and oregano mixture.  Stir it up, turn off the heat, and let it sit for a bit to all come together.  The pasta will soak up a lot of the broth and get softer. Season to taste.

I like to add a lot of Parmesan cheese to mine but my husband doesn't like any - to each his own.  But whatever you do, get some nice fresh bread to sop up the broth.

download recipe here

xx Heather