Going Crockless Again

It’s good to be back again after a week away. My commitment to do this every Friday was challenged last week because my singing group got an amazing opportunity, as most, if not all of you, already know. But I have to admit, when things calmed down, I really missed the time I would have spent at the keyboard.

So this week, because last weekend was so crazy and we didn’t have a lot of time to plan, we went crockless.

Why, you might ask, did we do that if we were so tired?

Well, we had about a half a rotisserie chicken in the fridge that needed to be used and we had bags of mixed veg in the freezer. In this house, that can only mean one thing.

Chicken soup.

Before I started living with N, this idea had never occurred to me, but it is, to my mind, brilliant. She’s the one who turned me on to this quickest and easiest of nearly homemade chicken soups.

The ‘recipe’ I’m going to write in is simply the proportions we used this week, but you can fiddle around with it until you find your preferred ratio of chicken to veg to broth.

Quick and Easy Chicken Soup

½ a leftover grocery store rotisserie chicken, meat stripped from the carcass (no skin…it gets slimy and gross in the pot)
1 16 oz bag of frozen mixed vegetables
1 32oz box of chicken stock, preferably reduced sodium
dehydrated sliced garlic
mixed dried herbs (such as Italian seasoning or herbes de Provence)

Combine ingredients in a soup pot. Bring to boil. Simmer 20-30 minutes. Enjoy. Serves 4.


I know you’re thinking, “Really? That’s it?”

Yes, that’s it. It is so freaking easy and so satisfying. And the real beauty of all that? It’s only 4 WeightWatchers PointsPlus per serving for a pretty decent sized bowl of soup!

You can, of course, do a lot with this basic recipe. Put in your favorite spices. Use different veggies, maybe even fresh ones (although they wouldn’t cook quite as quickly). Add some pasta (like orzo or pastina) or rice. You could even use your own stock. The last time I made this, I only had 2 cups of chicken stock, but I had a bunch of homemade turkey stock in the freezer, so I added that to the pot.

The only really time consuming part is stripping the meat off the carcass, which is maybe a 10 minute job. So yeah…for me, it’s the quickest, easiest pot of chicken soup I’ve ever made.

The chicken was roasted, so it’s already got good flavor. The store-bought stock I use is dark and rich. The dehydrated garlic adds a lovely, toastiness. And the herbes de Provence that I used this time gave it a fresh, floral herbiness.

Not bad for something that took about 30 minutes all told to make!

Next week, we will probably go back to the crock pot, maybe something new. Although, I’ve been craving the crock pot beef carnitas recently. We will just have to see. :o)

If you have any suggestions about something you love that you think we should try, please comment here or on Facebook!

Have a great week, everyone! See you next Friday!