I found the recipe for this Spicy Hot Chicken Soup in the latest issue of the Penzey’s Spices catalog.

I can honestly say that I don’t like plain chicken noodle soup. In fact, I’m not sure that I’ve voluntarily eaten plain chicken noodle soup in my adult life. It’s bland and boring and I don’t want to eat it. Not even if I’m sick.

That being said, I immediately wanted this soup when I saw it in the catalog. If it were plain chicken noodle soup, I would have turned the page…but the addition of ginger, cayenne pepper and green onions to chicken noodle soup made me stop and salivate.

If you’re in the mood for chicken soup with a kick, make this. Just keep the Kleenex on the table as your nose is probably going to start dripping.

I’m not going to add the recipe to this page as it can be found here on the Penzey’s website.

I did make a few changes to the recipe:

• Their recipe calls for just powdered ginger. I used a bit of powdered ginger and a good 1 1/2 or 2 tablespoons of finely minced fresh ginger. I like ginger.
• The recipe calls for cayenne pepper. I didn’t have any so I substituted ground ancho pepper powder, a dash of chili powder and a dash of Spanish sweet smoked paprika. I decided that it wasn’t quite spicy enough so I threw in a good teaspoon or so of Sriracha.
• Penzey’s used egg noodles. I don’t particularly like them and they warned to keep them separate from the soup (as they get really soggy if kept in the soup) for leftovers. That’s kind of a pain so I used orzo instead. I’ve made lots of soup with orzo and it doesn’t get soggy like a lot of other pasta does. I used about 3/4 of a cup of it and cooked the soup for about 20 minutes after adding it.
• I used regular chicken broth instead of the “Chicken Soup Base” the recipe prescribes. I used 6 cups of broth and 2 cups of water.
• It’s not mentioned in the recipe, but you’ll want to add some salt and pepper.

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