I'm kind of a Boner, but I Won Top Chef

This dude stayed consistently mediocre the entire season and then goes on to win it all.

Luckily, the long awaited Chicken Soup recipe is here to comfort you in your time of need.

From my Top Chef to you:

Ingredients

1-2 cans of low-sodium, low-fat chicken broth (or full sodium if you are not worried about puffiness/swelling)

1 package of real long carrots (not the baby ones)

1 package of celery

1 medium/large yellow onion

1 package (about 1.5-2 lbs.) chicken with bone-in and skin on (it can be breasts, thighs, legs, whatever)

Salt/Pepper

Bay leaves

Garlic powder

Macaroni

Cheese

1. Large pot and put it on the stove. Put a little bit of olive oil on the bottom of the pot and turn flame to high.
2. Brown chicken. Take skin off of chicken and put chicken in pot to brown as you are de-skinning it. When the chicken browns a little bit, turn it to the other side. By browning meat, you help to seal in the juices so it does not get tough when boiling for extended periods of time. By the time you are done de-skinning chicken, most of the chicken should be lightly browned.
3. Take the pot off of stove and fill it to the top with water by running under sink faucet. Do not fill with water to the tippy top of the pot or once you start putting vegetables in the pot, the water will overflow out of the pot. Leave about an inch of room. You want it to begin to boil.
4. Return pot to stove. Put flame to high. Note: You goal is to reduce broth about 1/3 while cooking, which is when you then add 1 or 2 cans of chicken broth for flavor, if needed.
5. De-skin onion. You may put it in whole, or cut in half, or fourths, or eighths. If you do not like onion, put it in whole so that you can take it out once the soup is done. Most of the time the onion is cooked so well that it disintegrates into the water. Put onion in pot.
6. While the chicken, water and onion are boiling in pot on the stove, shave the dirty outer layer off of the carrots with either a knife or peeler. Rinse carrots. Slice carrots. Put them in pot.
7. Rinse celery. You may wait about 20-30 minutes or so between carrots and celery because you don’t want celery to get too mushy. It cooks quickly. Cut celery and put in pot.
8. Put in 3 bay leaves. Season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, or whatever you want. Keep tasting to make sure it has taste. Season as needed.
9. OPTIONAL: You may add sliced zucchini, fresh baby spinach, escarole, etc. to pot. They all cook very quickly.
10. Boil for about an hour after this. You know soup is done when you check to see if chicken is falling off of bone easily. Or you check to see the chicken is not pink inside. Once that happens, the soup is about done.
11. Add 1-2 cans of chicken broth about 30 minutes before you are ready to serve. After the hour if fine.
12. Put up water for macaroni (or rice, or best, acini de pepe) and make it in a separate pot. Do not add pasta to boiling soup because the pasta absorbs the broth while cooking and you will end up with no liquid left in the pot. It’s best to make macaroni separate.
13. Take chicken out of pot and take off of bones. It should fall apart. Put chicken back in soup pot.
14. Serve with macaroni. Add pecorino romano, or parmesan, cheese.