It’s sick season… and nothing shuts down an entire household quite like a man with a sniffle.
You know the drill. Someone coughs twice, suddenly blankets are required, plans are canceled, and we’re acting like we may never see daylight again.
Enter: sick season soup.
This is exactly what I want simmering on the stove when someone in my house isn’t feeling their best. It’s warm, comforting, loaded with vegetables and chicken, and filled with the cutest little stellina pasta. Blending some of the cooked vegetables into the broth makes it extra cozy and gives it a creamy-ish texture without actually adding cream.
And because sick season is not the time to prove anything, we’re using a rotisserie chicken. Work smarter.
Sick Season Chicken & Stellina Soup
Serves about 8–10
Ingredients
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 large yellow onion, finely diced
1 large shallot, finely chopped
4 celery stalks, finely diced
1 yellow bell pepper, finely diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
10 cups bone broth
1 pound carrots, finely diced
1 Parmesan rind, optional but highly recommended
1½ teaspoons kosher salt, plus more to taste
⅓ cup stellina or other tiny pasta
2½–3 cups shredded rotisserie chicken
Freshly grated Parmesan, for serving
Fresh rosemary and/or thyme, finely chopped
Freshly cracked black pepper
How to Make It
Heat the olive oil and butter in a large Dutch oven or soup pot over medium heat.
Add the onion, shallot, celery, and bell pepper. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until everything begins to soften. Add the garlic and cook for another minute or two.
Pour in the bone broth, then add the carrots, Parmesan rind, and salt. Bring everything to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook uncovered for about 20–25 minutes, or until the vegetables are really tender.
Remove and discard the Parmesan rind.
Scoop out about 2 cups of the vegetables and set them aside. Using an immersion blender, carefully blend the remaining broth and vegetables until smooth.
Bring the soup back to a gentle simmer and add the stellina. Cook according to the package directions until tender.
Stir the reserved vegetables and shredded rotisserie chicken back into the pot. If the soup has gotten thicker than you like, add another splash of bone broth.
Cover, turn off the heat, and let everything hang out for about 15–20 minutes so all those flavors come together.
Taste and adjust the salt as needed.
Ladle into bowls and finish with lots of freshly grated Parmesan, cracked black pepper, and a little rosemary or thyme.
A Few Flour Girl Notes
Stellina are those teeny-tiny star-shaped pasta and they make this soup approximately 100x cuter. But any tiny pasta works.
Don’t skip the Parmesan rind if you have one. I keep leftover rinds in the freezer specifically for soups like this.
The pasta will continue soaking up broth as the soup sits, especially overnight. When reheating leftovers, just add a splash of bone broth until it’s back to your preferred consistency.
And yes, rotisserie chicken is absolutely the move here. This is sick season. Nobody needs you roasting a chicken from scratch.
Serve it with warm sourdough, extra Parmesan, and preferably to someone being extremely dramatic about a minor cold.
Consider the man flu handled.
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