1 lb. chicken drumsticks (preferred, but you can use thighs too)
a pinch of salt
32 oz. carton Swanson's chicken broth
2 tbsp. garlic salt*
1 tbsp. dried basil
1 tsp. ground pepper
2 cans S&W stewed Italian recipe tomatoes
3/4 cup long grain rice
6 large cut carrots
2 cups fresh chopped cilantro
4 cut sticks of celery
6-8 oz. sliced mushrooms
12 oz. fresh spinach

In a 16 quart stock pot, add 3/4 full of water and 1 pinch of salt. Bring to a boil. Add chicken. Cook uncovered for 1 hour.

Add chicken broth, garlic salt*, basil, pepper and stewed tomatoes. Let boil uncovered 5 minutes. Add rice, carrots, cilantro, and celery. Boil covered for 15 minutes. Right after adding celery and while this is boiling, take out chicken and put on cutting board. Remove bone and separate chicken into pieces. Put chicken meat back into pot and throw away bones. After the 15 minutes of boiling is up, add mushrooms and spinach. Serve immediately. Enjoy! ☺

This recipe is an estimate of what I use, because when I cook it, I just eye the amounts and throw it together. As long as it tastes good… it’s good.

Submitted by: Suzy S.

*Cooks Note: When we make soup in our test kitchen at Cooks.com, we add most of the salt last. This is because as the water evaporates during the cooking, the salt concentrates, and the soup will become too salty. We add only a pinch at the start of cooking.

When the soup has about 20 minutes left of cooking time, taste and add salt as needed, rather than going by a pre-set measurement. This is also a good time to adjust all seasonings to your taste preferences. Remember that others in the family may prefer less salt; in their consideration, it is often a good plan to allow for these preferences and let some of the salt be added at the table by each person.