Lemony Leftover Chicken Soup

I don't care how hot it gets outside, I can always go for a bowl of soup. It's my comfort food, and I've been eating a lot of it lately. The other thing I love about soup is that it is 'souper' affordable. Ha Ha, I had to. I've been on a mission the past few months to reduce my families food budget. I plan on sharing all my tips soon but a little sneak peak: repurposing leftovers. Soup is a great way to stretch and use up leftovers. The soup I have for your today is really simple and really delicious. The pictures aren't much to look at but the flavor is bursting, I promise you'll love it. I use leftover rotisserie chicken but you can use any leftover chicken on the bone. You can also save chicken scraps and bones in the freezer until you have enough. Making your own stock is much cheaper and more importantly much healthier than buying it. If you aren't all ready making homemade stock, then now is the time to start! The inspiration for the lemon in this recipe came from my step mom. She makes this amazing chicken meatball and orzo soup with lemon; I could eat the whole pot. I wanted to recreate some of that flavor. This recipe can be made in a regular large pot or an Instapot. I've done it both ways and combined the methods and it comes out great every time. Enjoy!

Lemony Leftover Chicken Soup

Gluten Free

Makes about 10 cups

For the Stock

1 leftover rotisserie chicken with some meat left on the bones (about 3/4 pound of bones and meat)

8 cups water

For the Soup

1 medium yellow onion, diced

1.5 cups white rice and/or 3 cups of zucchinni noodles

1 tbl salt or to taste

1 tsp ground black pepper or to taste

1/2 cup lemon juice from about 3 lemons

To make your soup in a stock pot:

Add water and chicken leftovers to a large stock pot, cover and bring to a boil then reduce to simmer for about 6 hours.

Cool slightly then strain the liquid back into the pot.

Once cool enough to handle, remove any meat from the bones and set aside. I usually get about a cup or two of meat.

On the top is the bones and the right is the leftover meat after making stock.

To the liquid stock add the onions, rice, salt and pepper.

Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer for about 20 minutes until the rice and onions are tender.

Add the chicken and lemon, and zuchinni noodles at this step if using.

Serve hot. Store sealed in the fridge for about 1 week.

To make your soup in an instapot:

Add water and chicken leftovers to the instapot.

Secure the lid in the seal position and set the timer for 2 hours.

Once the 2 hours are up turn off the instapot and let the steam release naturally for 20 minutes and then manually release the rest.

Cool slightly then strain **half the liquid back into the pot and the other half into a small bowl.

Once cooled enough to handle, remove any meat from the bones and set aside. I usually get about a cup or two of meat.

To the 4 cups of stock in the instapot, add the onions, rice, salt and pepper.

Secure the lid in the seal position and set the timer for 6 minutes. Manually release the steam when the timer goes off.

Add the remaining 4 cups of stock, chicken and lemon, and zuchinni noodles at this step if using.

Serve hot. Store sealed in the fridge for about 1 week.

Notes and Substitutions

**Only use half of the liquid when cooking the rice in the instapot because the rice tends to get a little foamy and can push out of the sealing valve if the pot is too full. Add the remaining liquid back at the end.

Zucchini noodles are a great way to make this soup low carb. The noodles will get mushy if cooked too long; adding them to the hot liquid in the last step is plenty of heat to get them tender. You can do all zucchini noddles, all rice, or a combo of rice and zucchini.

Before and after of the stock: