1. start with a roasting hen. Have a great roast chicken meal. Pick the extra meat off and save for chicken salad or whatever.
2. Place chicken in stock pot and fill with water. Bring to a boil, reduce to a slow simmer. Simmer several hours, or do it in a crockpot all day.
3. Remove bones (the carcass should have fallen apart by now).Strain broth, reserve.
4. pick out all the meat, set aside, discard bones.
Refrigerate stock overnight. Next morning, skim off fat.
5. Now make soup!
I add:
chicken bouillion to taste
the reserved meat
chopped carrots, celery, and onions
1 or two chopped garlic cloves
parsley
marjoram
sage
then I decide on the starch--
dumplings, or
rice,or
egg noodles
right before serving I add a few pinches of nutmeg
If I'm doing dumplings (bisquick dumplings) i may stir in a can of creamed corn.
Quote: 1. start with a roasting hen. Have a great roast chicken meal. Pick the extra meat off and save for chicken salad or whatever.
2. Place chicken in stock pot and fill with water. Bring to a boil, reduce to a slow simmer. Simmer several hours, or do it in a crockpot all day.
3. Remove bones (the carcass should have fallen apart by now).Strain broth, reserve.
4. pick out all the meat, set aside, discard bones.
Refrigerate stock overnight. Next morning, skim off fat.
5. Now make soup!
I add:
chicken bouillion to taste
the reserved meat
chopped carrots, celery, and onions
1 or two chopped garlic cloves
parsley
marjoram
sage
then I decide on the starch--
dumplings, or
rice,or
egg noodles
right before serving I add a few pinches of nutmeg
If I'm doing dumplings (bisquick dumplings) i may stir in a can of creamed corn.
I make chicken soup Leo's way in the interest of economy, because I hate to waste the bones; I also save the pan drippings and skim the fat off before adding them. They bring great depth of flavor to the soup.
But for real honest-to-gosh chicken soup the way Grandma used to make it, start with a mature hen. (These are hard to find unless you know someone with a flock of them. If you do, and they will sell you one, you are blessed!)
Put your fowl into cold water to cover and turn on the heat. Bring slowly to a simmer. You don't ever want it to boil! You may add whtaever you like in the way of seasonings, but not too much of anything; celery tops, parsley, onion, a clove of garlic, black peppercorns, a bay leaf, a little thyme. You are going to strain all the veggies out when the meat is done, as they will be mushy.
Simmer til the meat is tender, from 1 to 3 hours depending on the age of the bird. The meat should be almost falling off the bone but not quite.
Remove it from the heat and let it cool in the broth til you can handle it. Remove the bird from the broth and put it on a platter. Pick the meat off the bones and dice it, discarding the fatty skin and the bones. (You might have enough meat for salad as well as soup.)
Strain the broth and discard the flavoring veggies. Cover and refrigerate the broth and meat separately til ready to make the soup.
Cut up the vegetables you choose to use in your soup. Heat the broth to boiling and add the vegetables, a half-cup of rice, and a teaspoon of salt (taste to adjust the seasoning). Turn the heat down and simmer til the rice is done and the vegetables are tender, about 1/2 hour to 40 minutes.
If you want noodles instead, cook them separately, drain and add to the soup when the vegetables are done.
Add the meat and heat just til very hot. Again, never boil soup!
Serve with pride.
Chicken soup, a staple in our home. I make mine pretty much the same way as Heather does with a few differences.
Alaska gets cold in the winter, no really! it does. To combat the chill, inside and out, I add lemon or lime juice and green chilis too. The added boost of the citrus and the touch of heat from the chilis... give your taste buds and your immune system a boost. Of course homemade noodles don't hurt either...
I think I'll go to the chicken farm around the corner and get a hen tomorrow and start a batch of soup...
Elisa & David in Alaska
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Our favorite chicken soup starts with a rotisserie chicken from Costco. After we've eaten about 1/2 the chicken, saving the bones and skin, I tear off the remaining chicken meat and set it aside. Then start simmering 4 cans of chicken broth. Add all the bones and skin, chopped carrots, 4 chopped garlic cloves, 1 chopped onion, 4 diced carrots, 3 sliced celery and a large handful of chopped parsley. I also toss in about 1/3 tsp of poultry seasoning and 1 tsp celery seed.
Simmer for an hour or more until veggies are tender. Strain and then put the broth back in the pot with the carrots, celery, onions and the reserved chicken meat. I add noodles and/or rice seperately to each bowl. This is a very rich soup.
Just this week, I made chicken soup and then turned half of it into chicken and dumplings. Added a couple more cans of chicken broth to the 1/2 of soup recipe.
Dumplings
2 cups flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp chicken bouillon
1 or more Tablespoons chopped parsley
1 Tablespoon chicken fat if you have it, if not use butter
Half and half or cream (enough to turn dry ingredients into a light dough)
Stir dry ingredients together. Mix in fat till it is evenly distributed. Add enough liquid to make a light dough.
Drop by teaspoonsfuls on top of simmering soup. Cover and cook about 15 minutes.
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"Please tell me how you make your chicken "soap"" Well, I sure would like to, but I've never figured out how to do that with my chickens. I have to pluck 'em myself and then wash 'em, but never thought of using soap.
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