So, we’re all under shelter-in-place orders, because, you know, the dreaded C-19. (Not to be confused with Steely Dan’s Hey 19.). While I am spending my time under house arrest teleworking and watching bad TV (Tiger King is the most amazing thing ever), Will is keeping VERY busy (apparently so as to avoid having to watch Tiger King with me).

In addition to working on the house, he’s also spending a lot of time cooking. And this weekend he decided to make Greek Lemon and Chicken soup.

The first time I ever heard of this soup was when we had recently started dating and he showed up with a cold. As he climbed into bed clutching a Kleenex and a bottle of Nyquil, he rasped, “Would you make Greek Lemon and Chicken soup?” “Sure,” I responded, but before I could ask, “How?,” the Nyquil kicked in and he was asleep. (Oh who are we kidding, he’s a guy. His head hit the pillow and he fell asleep. The Nyquil was just lagniappe.)

Mind you, I’d never heard of Greek Lemon and Chicken soup, so I turned to Google and found about a million recipes for it. I combed through and found the common element to be the raves about the soup. All the recipes were pretty much the same: you know, chicken and lemon. I figured this was one of those little effort, huge payoff recipes.

So, I made it.

And I tasted it.

And was unimpressed.

But I took it to sad, sick Will and he ate it and made yummy noises.

Our love was still new. That and he was high on Nyquil.

Because fast forward a couple of months and he announced that he was going to make Greek Lemon and Chicken soup. And responded (admittedly, rather unenthusiastically), “Oh.”

And he wandered into the kitchen and (and don’t get thrown off by this next line) … spent a good part of the day making this soup.

But, when he served it … Oh my word

It’s incredible.

It’s salty and lemony and chicken-y and rich – and you feel instantly better by eating it. I promise. Because if it wasn’t that good, I wouldn’t do what I’m about to do, which is suggest you make it.

Yes, I know. It take a good long while to make. But what else do you have to do right now and honestly, you likely need something to cheer you up a bit.

And really, this is just the thing.

Skip the recipes you’ve read thus far – you can tell they’re up to no good when they tell you to use water or canned chicken broth*. You really must take the time to make your own stock, and it’s worth it. (And making stock is no big deal, it’s just a bit time consuming. But really all it comes down to is throwing a whole chicken into a pot of water with some veggies added. Boil it for an hour or two, drain off the liquid, and voila, you’ve got amazing chicken stock. Okay. There may be a tiny bit more to it. Here’s Will’s recipe for it.

Try it. I can pretty much promise you’ll like it. And drop me a note and tell me what you thought of it.

Until next time, cheers!

*It turns out Will boils the chicken in Swanson’s chicken broth to make the stock extra rich.