(15 minute chicken noodle soup recipe at the bottom)

I’d like to let y’all in on a little cooking secret of mine. Sometimes I don’t feel like making my own chicken.

Honestly, it’s boring–and it takes a while. All the fun is in making the rest of the dish, not the chicken.

Sometimes I don’t feel like even shredding rotisserie chicken from the grocery story. Yes, I know, it’s already made, warm, and ready to go, but then you get your hands all slimy and it still takes a while to shred an entire, whole chicken!

This is why Tyson’s Grilled & Ready Pulled Chicken Breast in the frozen aisle is my lifesaver. It cuts my cooking time down in half without compromising the taste. This isn’t an ad, and I’m sure there are other brand versions you can buy similar to this product–I just know that I like this particular brand.

Dishes I use the frozen chicken with:

• Quesadillas
• Chicken noodle soup
• Classic chicken salad
• Chicken fried rice
• Various wraps
• • (My favorite being a chicken Caesar salad wrap)
• Various pastas
• • (My favorite being basil chicken alfredo with spinach)
• Various salads
• • (Like this one)

As you can see, this helps me in a lot of my dishes when I don’t feel like taking more time than I have to. Especially during the school year when I’m too busy to cook, but don’t want to eat fast food. Wraps take 5 minutes to prepare, salads take 5-10, pastas take 10-15, and soups 15-20.

Soups and pastas are nice because I can walk away from them while they’re cooking. On particularly busy night, I’ll listen to my assigned readings on LibriVox or Audible to stay productive while I’m cooking and eating.

Chicken Soup: Throw all ingredients into a pot, bring to a boil, and then turn down to low for 15-20 minutes covered.

Ingredients:

• Swanson chicken broth
• Tyson Frozen chicken (I don’t thaw it)
• Penne pasta
• Sliced carrots
• Celery flakes
• Basil
• Oregano
• Salt and pepper
• Minced onion (Optional)