I have waxed poetic before on the many health virtues of chicken soup, not to mention it being so very, very delicious when prepared properly. Mine is not a scientific opinion, I have done no medical research, but it is an opinion formed over many years of getting to feel better by taking small doses (1 cup or so) every hour or two.
My guess is that it is the tremendous amount of nutrition that chicken soup supplies, and when your body is run down, it needs a super dose of pure goodness: chicken soup is it.
It isn’t hard to make your own: simply chicken in water to make the broth, de-bone the chicken and add sautéed veggies. Worst case scenario is to buy canned soup, it is a poor substitution, but better than nothing.
But wait! I have come upon an even better solution! Find your way to the closest Vietnamese restaurant (there are almost half a dozen on the Coast), and order pho. Anthony Bourdain called pho a “steaming bowl of goodness,” and it certainly is.
A few weeks ago I was visiting one of my favorite Vietnamese places, Vung Tau, on Oak Street in Biloxi, perusing the page of pho selections and I was surprised to see a chicken pho! I have been enjoying pho for years, and why I never noticed that there was a chicken option, I do not know. I gave it a try and was blown away by the most delicious chicken soup I have ever had. The portion was huge (as pho is always served with lots of soup to help keep the other contents warm), really way more than I could eat, so I took what was left over as take out.
Chicken pho from Vung Tau has at least a full cup of chicken breast meat, cut into big bite sizes, tons of noodles, lots of bean sprouts, Thai basil, cilantro, jalapenos and a nice choice of other condiments (like hoisin sauce). It is a virtual cornucopia of good and nutritious things to eat.
I order chicken pho when I am really hungry (one order really is several meals for me), but I have also started ordering just the broth when I am not feeling well. If you get the soup with all the noodles and other ingredients combined, it tends to get a little mushy after a while. If you get just the broth, is lasts much longer and its so easy to pour out a cup or two to warm up for a quick cure for whatever ails you.
Give it a try, I guarantee you will love it!