You’ll need:

one whole chicken

15-30 cloves garlic, minced or crushed (I used about 1 1/2 bulbs)

1 Tbs. salt

3-4 fresh thyme sprigs

fresh rosemary sprigs

cayenne pepper, about 1 tsp.

ground black pepper

Throw all of that in a big pot. See all that garlic? That’s going to kill those viruses. Don’t worry about the amount of garlic being too strong. It really isn’t when the soup is done and it smells fantastic while it cooks. Don’t worry about the cayenne pepper either. It provides warmth that will clear your sinuses, but it’s not spicy at all.

Pour a couple boxes or cans of chicken broth over the top, then top it off with water so that the chicken is completely covered. You can also use only water if you like. Cook it on the stove top until the chicken starts to fall apart. Then remove the chicken and strain the broth a bit, getting out the long stems from the spices and all the chicken bones. Set the chicken aside to cool a bit.

Now you’ll want to add some veggies. I used some carrots, onion, a stalk of celery and a fennel bulb. You can also add leeks and red pepper, but I didn’t have any of those. Chop the veggies and saute them in oil until tender. If you have it add 1/2 cup of good white wine and some salt and pepper. Add the veggies into the pot of broth and simmer for a while. I added about 6 cups of water to the broth at this point. It had really cooked down and was very rich.

Take the chicken off the bones and chop it up. Add it back into the soup. Add in a can or two of diced tomatoes. You can also add frozen green beans, peas, zucchini, flat leaf parsley.

I don’t know if this will heal my kids faster or prevent the rest of us from getting the flu, but it tasted great. I ate 3 bowls for dinner. Yum!