• 1 whole organic free range chicken (ya, OBVIOUSLY!) rinsed 
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1TBSP poultry seasoning or sage
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 whole bulb garlic peeled & smashed
• 2 sprigs of fresh Italian parsley for garnish
• 2 leeks chopped (the base and about half way up the green until it gets tough)
• 2 big yellow onions (one to add to chicken in crock pot, one for veggie mix)
• 2 stalks of celery chopped – I got mine from the farmers market, ‘course, which is a lot smaller and more flavorful then store bought-careful with celery, it can overpower the lovely blend
• 2-3 cups of carrots chopped
• About 1 cup of fresh or frozen green peas (I used frozen because peas are not in season)
• About 1 cup of fresh or frozen corn (yes, again frozen because I had the flu darnit! I did not want to go traipsing around in search of out of season veggies)
• About 2 cups baby tomatoes sliced in half
• About 12 cups of your favorite chicken broth or stock (I used 2 containers of Imagine low sodium chicken broth)
• About 3 cups fresh kale, stems removed and chopped.
• 1/4-1/2 tsp crushed, dried red chili’s: OPTIONAL- if you like a little heat on things
• Salt to taste and a little pepper

Cook whole chicken in a crockpot on low for 6 hours with one quartered onion and 1 cup low sodium chicken broth. Remove chicken from crockpot and let it cool in bowl for 15-30 min.

Pull chicken off the bones, KEEP THE BONES (to make bone broth later) break or cut chicken into pretty chunks (don’t go crazy here..bigger is better), strain juices into a container and refrigerate broth, and chicken separately.

Heat the oil in a large stock pot over medium heat. Add the leeks, celery, onions and carrots. Sauté until just soft. Add garlic & saute until aromatic, but not brown. Toss all of this hoopla back into a crockpot,with poultry seasoning & bay leaf.

Skim fat off of the homemade chicken broth, and add to crockpot. Add enough low sodium broth to cover mixture. Cook in crockpot on low for 2 hours.

Take a long flu fighting nap, ignoring all texts & emails and pesky thoughts.

Stir in the tomatoes, chopped kale, peas, and corn and chicken, salt & pepper, & optional, crushed chili’s (if you are a hot head) to taste, add more broth to make it all soupy cover and cook in crockpot one more hour. All-righty then..this stew tastes even more FABULOUS a couple of days after it’s been in the fridge.

Hope you love it.

I hope even more that you do not think you need to get the flu to enjoy the stew! Lot’s more coming soon! I will be having some amazing specials coming up, for those of you on my email list……just in time for Christmas.

Big Love, Ciao for now,