Mediterranean Chicken Soup

Steps

▶ Tap a timecode to jump to roughly that moment in the video.

1. 1
   Cut the chicken breasts into small pieces. Cut them small enough to eat with a spoon and to speed up cooking time.
   ▶ ≈1:21
2. 2
   Heat the pot on high heat and add the chicken pieces. Sauté until the meat turns light in color for flavor—pre-cooking without browning. Stir immediately as needed.
   ▶ ≈1:50
3. 3
   While the chicken cooks, slice the red onion into quarter rings and cut the garlic into visible pieces rather than mincing into paste.
   ▶ ≈2:25
4. 4
   Season the chicken individually first to better control salt and pepper amounts. Once the chicken is nearly cooked through, add the garlic and red onion pieces and sauté together.
   ▶ ≈3:05
5. 5
   Cut carrots into small pieces for faster cooking and quicker flavor release. Chop celery the same way. Add the freshly cut vegetables to the pot and sauté everything together until the vegetables develop a slight shine.
   ▶ ≈3:42
6. 6
   Use fresh vine tomatoes instead of canned ones. Remove the stem and chop them into small pieces, then add to the pot. For better tomato flavor, add tomato paste and sauté everything together.
   ▶ ≈4:40
7. 7
   Season the vegetables and tomatoes again. Add water to transform the mixture into a soup. While stock could be used, the abundance of vegetables and chicken provides enough flavor with just water.
   ▶ ≈5:30
8. 8
   Add bay leaves to cook with the soup. Then add the wild garlic pesto (or any pesto of choice), about a level teaspoon each of marjoram and thyme, and the Aroma Mediterrano spice blend.
   ▶ ≈6:20
9. 9
   Stir everything together and let the soup simmer gently for about 30 minutes until everything is perfectly cooked and has released its flavor.
   ▶ ≈7:22
10. 10
    Once cooking is complete, the chicken should be very tender and the vegetables fully cooked. Cut the lemon in half and serve alongside the soup, allowing each person to squeeze 3 or 4 drops of fresh lemon juice into their bowl for added freshness.
    ▶ ≈7:42