Chicken Soup & Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread

I'm focusing on dinners this week.  By that I mean, I'm trying really hard to actually plan and cook meals, rather than throwing something together every night.

Last night was home made chicken soup and jalapeno cheddar cornbread.

The chicken soup is a little bit of a process, but the results are delicious.  I stick a whole organic chicken + water in a crock pot until the meat is falling off the bones, about 12 hours.  I salvage the broth in a jar, seperate all the meat from the bones, then stick the bones back in the crock pot and cover with water.  I let the bones simmer for about 6 hours, which results in some seriously flavorful and nutritious bone broth.  I then remove the bones and discard, combine the two broths, and then let the chicken & chopped vegetables simmer in it for awhile (since my husband doesn't like vegetables, I kindly left them out this time).  For myself, I scooped out some chicken and broth as is, but for my husband and kids, I added pasta and let simmer until cooked (about 5-8 minutes).  It's a bit of a long process, but the amount of work I actually do is minimal.

I shared the soup with a friend unaware that chicken soup is his favorite food.  When I told him that it was nothing but water, chicken and salt, he was really surprised by how much flavor there was for such simplicity.  He said, "Trust me, it's really good."

The recipe for the cornbread can be found right here.  I ommited the scallions (for husband's sake) and used unbleached white flour.  I thought it was pretty tasty - it was moist, rich, fluffy, and kind of reminded me of the texture of eating cake, but without the sweetness.  My husband wasn't too fond of it. :(