Saturday 18 January 2014

Recipe: very simple chicken soup: frugal

Earlier on this week Jack Monroe posted this recipe/entry on her blog.
http://agirlcalledjack.com/2014/01/16/sister-marthas-just-chicken-chicken-soup/

It just so happened that I had some chicken thighs thawed.  Cheap, value, been in the freezer for far too long, not 'welfare', I fear.  I wasn't going to waste them by throwing them out, however, so I roasted them, used the meat from three of them (not an awful lot, I'm afraid) and then popped the last two plus leftover bones, skin, etc, in my slow cooker with some hot water with which I swilled out the roasting dish, some salt and a pinch of mixed herbs.  It then simmered away on low for  - well, it must have been about 36 hours altogether.

This morning I strained the stock through a fine sieve and separated the bits of chicken from the residual bones and so on.  The stock went in the fridge and later, when it was chilled, I strained off the fat which I will use for chicken based dishes when needed.  Then I ladled some of the stock into a pan and added the small shreds of chicken, keeping the bigger bits for another dish.  I just heated it up to boiling, checked the salt (it needed a little bit more) and drank it as soup.

And you know what - Jack is right - it was absolutely delicious.  So, so simple, so few ingredients and yet it was wonderful.  Warm, intensely savoury, comforting and gentle on my still slightly iffy tum.  And satisfying, very satisfying.  So I'm sharing it with my blog readers.

4 comments:

  1. Whenever we have chicken it always ends up like this. I must admit i add carrot onion and celery to the mix while it boils but the the broth is really restorative - I believe it is also known as Jewish antibiotics. It cures all manner of ills.....

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  2. I've never, ever used chicken stock so simply. It won't be the last time though. :-)
    J x

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  3. A new one on me, I have always added it to other things but it just so happens that I have a jug full in the fridge so tomorrow I shall have chicken soup:) thank you .

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  4. Don't be afraid to reduce it down to a deeply concentrated flavour.
    I'm wondering about making mini dumplings to go into the next one. I think that is traditional too, isn't it? Suet is now on the shopping list.
    J x

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