Colds and Antibiotic Soup

This last week a cold descended upon the Miller household. Very quickly I might add! One morning my youngest son woke up with sniffles and a sore throat and by the next day we all had it along with chills and sinus congestion. The first thing we all started doing was making garlic tea. I’ve found garlic to be amazing for colds. The next thing I did was make soup with lots and lots of garlic.

Garlic is amazing for fighting colds and flu symptoms. Garlic has incredibly health promoting qualities. It is said to be an effective antibiotic and natural virus killer as well as an immune enhancer, anti-fungal, and so much more.

A friend of mine had said she made antibiotic soup for her family and I was intrigued by the name! She shared the recipe with me, which came from a friend of hers, who originally got the recipe from someone at a homeschool group a few years back. I tweaked the recipe some to make it a little easier to make. And my whole family ate the soup for a couple days in a row and not only was it good, but it truly helped with the cold symptoms.

So here is my version of the soup…

Antibiotic Soup

1 large whole chicken, 4 to 5lbs, preferred
1 ½ gallons of water
2T salt
2 large onions, chopped & 1 medium onion, chopped
60 cloves of garlic (yep, that is not a misprint!), chopped
3 or 4 cups sliced carrots

Put the whole chicken, water, salt, the 2 large chopped onions (save the other onion for later) and 30 chopped cloves of garlic (half of the amount called for in the recipe, the other half will be used later) in a large stock pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 6 to 7 hours. Pour broth through a strainer and into another stockpot to separate the chicken/onions/garlic from the broth.

Put broth back on stove and bring to a boil. Add remaining onions, garlic cloves and carrots. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for another 20 or 30 minutes. While the soup is simmering de-bone the chicken, chop the meat and add it back to the soup. Heat, taste and add more salt if you feel it needs it (along with any other seasonings you would like) and serve.

If this is more soup than you need (it does make a LARGE pot), freeze leftovers. It would be great to have on hand the next time you are sick or to be able to take it to someone who is sick.

You can add more veggies if you would like. We liked the fact that it is very brothy. It was soothing, comforting and good tasting and easy for the sickies in the household to eat.

It would seem with the amount of garlic I put in this soup that the soup would have a strong garlic taste. What we found interesting is that it did not. You could taste the garlic, but it was not overwhelming.

 

Here is the original version of the recipe I was given. I’ve added both versions to the printable recipe.

Antibiotic Soup
Yield: 10 servings
[Allow min. 2 – 2 ½ hours prep/cooking time]
1 whole chicken
Simmer slowly in water in a soup kettle/Dutch oven, 1 hr. to “all day long”. (The longer it simmers the more beneficial nutrients are leached out of the chicken bones into the broth!!)
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Meanwhile, make Garlic Broth.*2 complete heads of garlic!
Using the side of a hammer or the flat side of a meat tenderizer, gently smash open each head of garlic, and then each clove, to remove all papery coverings; then smash/chop each clove into smallish pieces, placing garlic in a small pan.2 c. chicken broth2 T butter. Place in pan with garlic; bring to boiling. Reduce heat; simmer 1 hour.
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When chicken is done: Remove chicken from broth, allow to cool some; de-bone the chicken and return meat to soup pot, along with Garlic Broth.[If not adding vegetables or seasonings, heat to serving temperature, or place in freezer containers. If adding vegetables or seasonings: To taste, add --Seasonings (opt): salt, pepper, thyme, marjoram, rosemary, sage, parsley, etc., to taste [Go a little easy; this soup is for sick folks.] Onion, chopped (opt.), Celery, chopped (opt.), Carrots, chopped (opt.)
Add to soup pot; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 20-25 min. before serving or placing in freezer containers.


 

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