Deli Rotisserie Chicken Soup
I have become a big fan of using rotisserie chicken from the grocery deli in recipes. What a timesaver -- and you cant beat the flavor. Heres one of my familys favorites. You can mix-n-match the veggies - I use what I find in the freezer. So, you could also call this my use up the frozen veggies soup
I have become a big fan of using rotisserie chicken from the grocery deli in recipes. What a timesaver -- and you cant beat the flavor. Heres one of my familys favorites. You can mix-n-match the veggies - I use what I find in the freezer. So, you could also call this my use up the frozen veggies soup
- 1 salt to taste
- 1 rotisserie chicken
- 32 oz chicken broth
- 2.5 cups water
- 3 cups frozen mixed vegetables any kind
- 1 cup frozen corn
- 1 cup bowtie pasta or other small pasta frozen or cooked almost al dente
- 3 tablespoons cumin
- 4 tablespoons taco seasoning divided
- 4 tablespoons chipotle seasoning
- 1 taco seasoning to taste
- Carbohydrate 19.9327925000001 g
- Cholesterol 65.78 mg
- Fat 11.495175 g
- Fiber 5.84284998035432 g
- Protein 25.730825 g
- Saturated Fat 3.0466925 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (333g)
- Sodium 392.0169375 mg
- Sugar 14.0899425196457 g
- Trans Fat 1.35261 g
- Calories 278 calories
Step-by-step
- Remove skin from chicken, debone and tear into pieces.
- Toss the torn chicken in a large bowl with the chipotle seasoning and 2 tablespoons of the taco seasoning.
- Set aside.
- In a dutch oven on medium heat, put all the frozen vegetables and pasta; cover with the broth and water.
- Stir in cumin and remaining taco seasoning.
- Heat to barely boiling, uncovered.
- Add chicken pieces, heat to simmering, turn heat to low.
- Add salt to taste and more taco seasoning to taste, simmer 10 minutes.
Chipotle seasoning performs the heaviest lifting in this broth by delivering both dehydrated capsaicin-carrying solids and smoked ground jalapeños that bind rapidly to poultry lipids. Fat-soluble flavor compounds found in spices require a medium like chicken skin or residual oils to bloom fully, which happens when the torn meat is tossed prior to simmering rather than dumped directly into the liquid. Ground cumin introduces volatile aldehydes that degrade under prolonged, high-heat boiling, meaning gentle simmering keeps those aromatic top notes intact over the ten-minute cook time.
Scaling quantities upward requires proportional adjustments to surface-to-volume ratios inside the vessel. Doubling liquids in a narrow stockpot decreases the rate of evaporation, which concentrates sodium unpredictably; therefore, add only 75 percent of the original salt during initial scaling and adjust seasoning at the very end after volume stabilizes. Pasta starches also absorb moisture continuously while resting, so if cutting the yield in half for smaller households, reserve the dried bowtie pasta and cook it separately to prevent the starch granules from rupturing and turning the broth pasty.
Over-extraction of moisture from frozen vegetables remains the single most common error cooks commit here, usually caused by maintaining a hard, rolling boil that bursts cell walls and leaches internal sugars into the soup. Maintaining a bare simmer around 200 degrees Fahrenheit prevents this cellular collapse while still adequately heating the dense interior of the frozen corn kernels. Allowing the Dutch oven to remain uncovered during the initial heating phase lets excess moisture escape, avoiding the watery dilution that occurs when frozen produce thaws rapidly in a sealed environment.
Batch cooking demands strict adherence to thermal safety windows, specifically cooling the finished pot below 40 degrees Fahrenheit within two hours of removing it from the heat source. Transferring hot soup directly into deep, oversized plastic containers traps internal heat and keeps the center in the bacterial danger zone for hours; shallow metal pans accelerate conductive heat loss far more effectively. Freezing portions containing pasta can degrade texture further upon thawing due to ice crystal formation shearing the gluten matrix, so batch-freeze the chicken and vegetable base without the pasta, adding fresh carbohydrates upon reheating.
