Relearning How To Make Chicken Soup

After 20+ years of being a vegetarian – I am in the re-learning phase of a “new” diet.  In the past couple of months I have added some meat products back into my diet and with that is re-teaching myself how to prepare them.  I purchased a whole chicken and then quickly put it into my freezer.  I want to make it, but I was a little nervous and I also realized that I no longer owned a roasting pan!  I thought about the chicken in my freezer, but still could not make myself cook it.  After what seemed liked forever of looking and reading about roasting pan – I purchased one – the time had come to cook the chicken!

I buttered and seasoned the bird, added the vegetables and put it in the oven to cook.  I checked on it a couple of times, covering it and adding some butter.  I took it out and it looked beautiful – now to remember how to carve – not so good on that one – but over time I will get better. The meat was moist and tasty.  After the meal – I took the rest of the meat off the bones and decided to make chicken stock.  The bones, the veggies from roasting and all the good juice from the bottom of the pan went into the soup pot and the simmering began!  After many hours the stock was ready, poured into mason jars and allowed to cool.

Chicken Soup

Ingredients

Chicken stock/broth
Carrots
Potatoes
Onion
Broccoli
Garlic
Barley
Seasoning

1.  Cut all your vegetables and set them aside.

2. Pour your broth and water, if broth is thick into a soup pot.

3. Add your vegetables and barley or other grain to the pot – bring to a small boil and then simmer for at least an hour.

4. Add seasonings – once you have allowed to simmer and cook – it is ready.  Stella seems to only like soups that are pureed at the moment, so…

5. Take the soup off the heat and allow to cool slightly.  Using a hand held immersion blend – puree the soup.

6. Return the soup to the heat and bring to your desired temperature.

This soup was good and even better with some bread (recipe coming tomorrow).  Stella loved it – only if I added some freshly grated Parmesan cheese!

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3 Responses to Relearning How To Make Chicken Soup

  1. Candace Coffin says:

    It all looked so good. The chicken in the roasting pan with veggies and your broth looked so delicious too. Nice to have broth ready when you make soup. And having it pureed is a whole different taste, but a delicious one. Glad Stella liked it. So good and nutritious!! Good job. : )

  2. Jo says:

    I love chicken soup….easy and delicious and this time of year so perfect. I made turkey soup a few weeks ago and put farro in it. I also added turnip! That’s the good thing about soup, you can add just about anything. Did Stella know she was eating chicken? You can also just put a good old raw chicken in a pot of water with some onions and celery and let it go. That’s the best stock ever.

  3. Gabriel says:

    I am a bit surprised to see your post on chicken, but happy to read it in full. I would like to comment on cleaning the bird before cooking. American poultry processors leave the kidneys intact in the carcass, and usually put the neck, giblets, heart and liver in a separate bag, reinserted into the carcass. Kosher processors remove and discard the kidneys as they are not considered clean to eat. I rinse the carcass after inspection and removal of extraneous viscera. I have read too much about the industry not to!
    If I want to skip an entire recipe, I brown the cut-up chicken in a large stock pot at least a good 15-20 minutes with turning, before I drain some of the fat and begin adding vegetables, basic seasonings and water. After a couple hours of simmering, I usually make a meal out of a piece of chicken, but continue simmering the soup, as it will be my second meal. I usually let the entire thing cool down, remove many of the bones, and then adjust the seasoning and dilution, and only now add beans, if at all. I usually don’t use grains in my soups for a number of reasons. After a couple days, I usually have only one or two servings left, which get picked through and frozen, often to provide me with stock for a future project, or a fast meal in the microwave.

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