Grilled Chicken and Artichoke Soup

So today is going to be a two-fer.  I will not bore you with the details, but today has been a VERY bad day.  I am feeling worse as opposed to better and hubby  volunteered to make us soup for lunch. He said since we have the leftover chicken, he would look for a good recipe calling for some of our leftovers.  Well, he went to AllRecipes.com and put the ingredient list of :chicken, artichokes, and tomato paste.  This is the recipe that popped up (changed to servings for 2 instead of 8):


Ingredients

1/2 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
1/4 cup boiling water
1/4 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
salt and pepper to taste
1-1/2 cups chicken broth
2 tablespoons sun-dried tomatoes (not packed in oil), snipped into small pieces
1-1/2 teaspoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 clove cloves garlic, minced
1/4 red onion, minced
1/2 (13.75 ounce) can artichoke bottoms, drained and chopped
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1-1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons dry white wine
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese, or to taste
Directions

This recipe's Ingredients were scaled to yield a new amount. The directions below still refer to the original recipe yield of 8 servings.

Place the dried mushrooms into the boiling water and set aside until softened, about 20 minutes. Once softened, squeeze excess water from mushrooms and finely chop. Reserve the mushroom-flavored water.

Preheat an outdoor grill for medium-high heat and lightly oil grate.
Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Grill chicken breasts until no longer pink in the center, about 6 minutes per side. Once cooked, set aside.

Pour chicken broth into a large pot, and bring to a boil over high heat. Stir in sun-dried tomatoes, tomato paste, and reserved mushroom liquid. Reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Stir in garlic and onion, and cook until the onion has softened and turned translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in the chopped mushrooms, artichokes, pepper, parsley, lemon juice, and white wine. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes; add to the simmering chicken broth.

Slice the grilled chicken breasts into strips and stir into the simmering soup. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese before serving.

Nutritional Information

Amount Per Serving  Calories: 254 | Total Fat: 11.1g | Cholesterol: 37mg

Several changes were made for convenience sake.  He used the extra chicken breast from last night.  The only sun-dried tomatoes we had were jarred in oil (used those).  Instead of chicken broth, he used beef broth and no lemon juice. We didn't have any porcini mushrooms, so he used regular, white mushrooms. I don't know if its just because I feel lousy, but this hit the spot and was very yummy!.  It made exactly 2 servings which was just perfect.  He was able to use the extra artichokes and chicken from last night as well as some leftover tomato paste. (Nice clean refrigerator now :D )

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