Homemade Chicken Soup, even if you didn't roast a whole chicken yesterday

So sometimes you have to have chicken soup, and you don't have a carcass to render meat and broth for the endeavor. OR you are too sick to be doing major cooking.  This is the case for me today. Olivia came over and made chicken soup for us, because we have the flu and can't do it ourselves. This is what she did:

* 3 boneless-skinless chicken breasts, still frozen
* 3 boneless-skinless chicken thighs, still frozen
* water to cover
* chicken bouillon cubes to make 4 cups (I use those 2-cup cubes, so 2)
a bag of frozen mise-en-place vegetable mix, or 1.5 cups each of diced frozen onions, celery, and carrots. You can really use any kind of soup veg mix, but I think carrots/celery/onion are indispensable to good chicken soup.
* a bay leaf
* seasoned salt and black pepper to taste
* more water if needed, or premade chicken stock
* 1-2 Tablespoons cornstarch mixed with about 1/4 cup cold water

Put the chicken into a 4-quart saucepan with enough water to mostly cover it up, throw 2 bouillon cubes in there, put a lid on it and bring it to a boil. Cook it until the chicken is done, and can be easily shredded.  Remove the chicken from the broth, reserving it, and shred the chicken up or dice it into small bite-sized pieces. (If you like the shred, and have a stand-mixer, the easiest way to shred cooked chicken is to toss it in the mixing bowl and use the white paddle attachment [not the whisk] on low-medium speed. Done in a minute. Otherwise, two forks will do the job, longer but more cost-effective than buying a Kitchenaid.)

Return the shredded chicken to the broth, add in your vegetables and the bay leaf, and evaluate whether you have enough broth for this soup. We had to add more water and bouillon cubes. I didn't think about the quart of frozen homemade chicken broth I have in the freezer, or we would have used that. (I'll put it in tomorrow when I heat up leftovers.)  Bring it back to a boil.  By using frozen vegetables, you reduce the length of time you need for this part of the soup. Basically you have to cook it until the veggies are done, which is basically heating it through.

At this point, evaluate whether you want a clear(ish)-broth soup, or a thicker, creamier soup. The cornstarch doesn't make it creamy, but it does make the broth more like a gravy. The amount listed up there doesn't make a HUGE difference in the broth, only enough to give it a little more body. You can do flour/water slurry, whisked into the broth, if you want a thicker broth.

Notes: So the broth of this soup lacks the depth that comes from boiling a whole carcass, because the bones and fat really add a lot of flavor. That said, this soup is still SO MUCH BETTER than canned, you will not be sorry you took the time here. It is still an acceptable level of quality, without the bones and fat.