We were all feeling puny and sniffly last week, so chicken soup made it to the top of my Koselig Cooking list. The dutch oven had already proved its usefulness in soup-making, and the necessary ingredients were in my pantry. I used the following recipe as a general outline and went to town.

Full disclosure: my coconut oil had expired. It passed the sniff and sight tests so I scooped some out of the jar and began to heat it in the Le Creuset. Uh-oh. It smelled a bit weird. Not the foul-chicken-weird that happened when I threw out-of-date chicken into my crockpot that one time—no, that was horrific and, dear Lord, let me never repeat it. I Googled coconut oil’s shelf life, was reassured mine was good, and the outcome of the soup was that it was THE BEST CHICKEN SOUP EVER. Not even kidding, folks; this was the best chicken soup I’ve made and I like to make soups. The spices were perfect and there was just enough fat in it to be filling on a cold winter’s night. This recipe—even though I played with it a bit and didn’t follow it completely—is the real deal.

Jump on over to Needs More Butter for the recipe for The Best Chicken Soup.