Now that the weather has turned, and everyone under the sun is sick, it’s probably a good time to make a pot of chicken soup. I thought I’d share my method for making chicken soup but it’s a no-recipe recipe. It’s more a philosophy about soup than it is anything else.

The two mistakes most people make when making chicken soup is not building flavor into the first steps and not having really good ingredients.

I approach all soups as if I’m building a nest. The nest is my soup’s foundation–a home the rest of the soup depends on. If my foundation isn’t good, it doesn’t give the rest of the soup much of a chance. Building a nest means starting with a lot of onion. I chop a really big yellow onion and use every bit of it. And I cut the onion so the pieces are a consistent size–not too big and not too small.

I saute the onion in very good olive oil for a few minutes, but here’s where you get to work building flavor: onions are like sponges for herbs and spices. So let the onion saute in the olive oil for a few minutes and once they feel like they’d accept having some company, add your salt and pepper.

Never be too shy with salt and pepper. The onion needs them and so does the soup, so without being over indulgent, sprinkle salt and pepper into the onion using your intuition about how much to add. And once you’ve given it all some time to meld, add a half to a whole teaspoon of white pepper. It doesn’t make the soup spicy, but it does add another level of flavor.

Next–fresh herbs. Today I used rosemary and thyme, and I threw enough fresh leaves into the onion mix so that they could let their presence be known without taking over the show.

One thing people fail to do is to let the onions saute long enough. When you’re sauteing flavor into the onions, you need to give the process time–about eight to ten minutes. You can tell when this magic process has happened because the onions will feel slightly mushy and will be coated with your herbs and spices in a way that lets you know it’s done. (Watch the temperature here. You want the onion to cook but not too quickly.)

Now it’s time to add the liquid to this flavorful nest that you’ve created, but whatever you do, use great liquid! There is a kind of roasted chicken stock base that comes in a small jar. It’s fantastic, and once you use it, you will never use anything else. Never. The cans and cartons of chicken stock you’ve always bought will seem so yesterday.

You add one teaspoon of that chicken stock base for every cup of water, and for my soup, I add six to eight cups of stock. I put in the first four and add more as needed, paying careful attention to taste and to be sure I’m not watering the soup down. If it feels like the broth isn’t strong enough, add another teaspoon of the base right into the soup. Play with the flavor until it’s just right.

Next–the vegetables. I like adding lots of carrots and I cut them into chunks on the diagonal. I don’t like the vegetables to be too chunky; I aim for the carrot pieces to fit into the mouth nicely. Remember that cutting the pieces too small will garner you even smaller carrot pieces over the course of the soup’s life–boiling, reheating, etc. so you’re looking for a balance in size. I add smaller pieces of celery, and I add less celery than I do carrots. And then how about some fresh spinach and a handful of orzo?

I put the chicken in last and try to use chicken that was cooked with flavor in mind–like a roasted chicken stuffed with lemon and herbs, or even a rotisserie chicken from the store. I used leftover chicken today that I had roasted two days ago, and while I wish I had more, there was just enough. Adding lots of veggies helped.

Four chicken breasts in a pack were selling for $19 to $21 and the whole chicken was only $9, so the soup–which will last a few days–was a bargain. And I know we all need more bargains in our life. My cousin just paid $26 for a bottle of Robittusin at her pharmacy in Pennsylvania, so while I’m eating my soup, I can gloat about making a good meal for less.

And bonus: my sick grandson is spending the day with us. What’s better than a pot of soup for a cold? That–and a really good blanket.