In a warm-up for the amateur chili cookoff coming up at the North Market here in Columbus in 3 weeks, we decided to try our luck at another local cookoff event…this one called the “2007 Souper Bowl Cookoff,” which was a chicken soup-making contest at our local synagogue here. Soup is good food, and we eat a lot of it. Chicken soup in particular bears the distinction of being called Jewish penicillin, and we wanted to make a spicy chicken soup worthy of our hot & spicy tastes. As you can see with the picture above and below, we won the Judge’s competition (there was a people’s choice also) for this event. Joe’s picture and our recipe will be printed in the Columbus Dispatch on February 6, 2008.

As Linda pointed out when the trophy came home…we think that we are officially attention-whores. The winning recipe is here for your viewing:

Joe & Linda’s Hearty-but-spicy chicken soup extravaganza

8 bone-in whole chicken breasts (7 lbs)
3 gallons chicken broth
3 large Vidalia onions, diced
3 cups diced celery, medium-cut
5 bay leaves
5 tbsp CaJohn’s Gourmet Garlic Herb spice mix
½ bottle CaJohn’s Jalapeno Select Puree
1 jar (16 oz.) My Favorite New Mexico Foods’ Green Chile Sauce
5 tsp ground thyme
5 tsp fresh parsley, minced
1-2 one-pound bags of egg noodles (more or less depending on how much noodles you want)

In a 5 gallon stockpot, add the raw chicken breasts and enough chicken broth to completely cover the meat. Boil for approx. 2 hours or until meat is cooked all the way through. Turn off heat and remove chicken from broth. Remove all the bones, dice up all the chicken meat, and return it to the broth. Add all the other ingredients, except the egg noodles, to the broth and allow cook at medium heat for several hours. Add water or more chicken broth as necessary to make soup the desired consistency or to dilute the spice level. Near the end of the cooking time, add egg noodles and simmer for approx. 20 more minutes or until eggs noodles are at desired firmness. Serve hot.

Makes 5 gallons.