Fall is around the corner and making a batch of chicken soup for work day lunches sounded appealing. I found a series of chicken soup recipes and one in particular fit into my WW daily blue points quota. I have never tried an Italian seasoned soup. I can tell you the house smelled AMAZING the entire day the slow cooker was doing its thing!
First step is to add seasoned chicken breast (tendon removed), diced tomatoes, chicken broth, yellow onion, orange bell pepper, pressed garlic, Italian seasoning, and bay leaf the slow cooker. Cover and cook on High until the chicken is tender (3 hours).
Next remove the chicken and the bay leaf. You can shred the chicken to your liking after 10 minutes of cooling.
While chicken is cooling add pasta into the mixture in the slow cooker. Be sure to stir to incorporate the pasta and make sure it is fully covered with liquid. Cover the slow cooker and cook on High until the pasta is tender (30 minutes). If you are not going to be eating this right away and reheating individual portions, you may want to make the pasta a little al dente. Start by testing it after 25 minutes.
Add shredded chicken and chopped basil to slow cooker. Stir the ingredients to incorporate and allow the chicken to warm back up. You can serve immediately or let it cool off a bit before portioning it out. When serving you may garnish with Parmesan cheese. If you can spare the carb intake a crusty bread would be awesome with this hearty soup.
Variations: To reduce carbs and point values, double the chicken and cut the pasta to 2 cups.
- 1 lb chicken breast, skinless, boneless and tendon removed
- 1 can diced tomatoes, Italian seasoned preferred
- 4 cups low-sodium chicken stock
- ½ yellow onion, chopped
- 2 orange bell peppers, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- ¼ tsp salt to season chicken
- ½ tsp black pepper to season chicken
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 cups of whole wheat pasta (farfelle, rotini, penne)
- 2 tbsp fresh basil, finely chopped