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Chicken Soup: Comforting chicken soup recipes for cold and flu season

Ward off winter germs and soothe your soul with one of these chicken soup recipes from The Canadian Living Test Kitchen.

By Christine Picheca, Online Food Editor
Recipes by The Canadian Living Test Kitchen

Grandmothers around the world tout their chicken soup as being good for what ails you. Chicken soup has been hailed as a cure for the common cold and an antihistamine (and even nicknamed “Jewish penicillin” – a nod to moms who have served it up to their sick kids.) Grandma may be on to something - the fabled healing properties of old-fashioned chicken soup has garnered a growing body of scientific evidence:

•    Pulmonary specialist and professor at the UCLA School for Medicine, Irwin Ziment, M.D.,  has shown an amino acid released from chicken during cooking chemically resembles the drug acetylcysteine, prescribed for bronchitis and other respiratory problems and found in some cold medications.

•    Spices such as garlic and pepper - ancient treatments for respiratory diseases - work by thinning mucus and make breathing easier.

•    The steam itself may be the real benefit - sipping the hot soup and breathing in the steam helps to temporarily clear congestion. 

While there is no conclusive evidence of a cure-all, it does seem probable that chicken soup helps alleviate annoying symptoms. At the very least, chicken soup provides a hot comforting meal and re-hydration. So as Grandma told you  -  slurp up when you're feeling under the weather.

Chicken soup recipe: Lemon Chicken and Spinach Noodle Soup

Chicken soup recipe: Chicken Meatball Soup with Pasta
Chicken soup recipe: Chicken and Rice Soup
Chicken soup recipe: Chock Full of Chicken and Noodles Soup
Chicken soup recipe: Knife and Fork Chicken Soup
Chicken soup recipe: Chicken Soup with Lime
Chicken soup recipe: Chicken and Stars
Chicken soup recipe: Hot Spicy Soup
Chicken soup recipe: Chicken and Vegetable Noodle Soup
Chicken soup recipe: Cock a Leekie Soup
Chicken soup recipe: Homemade Chicken Stock

Read more: Colds and the flu: Symptoms and treatment



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