Place into a slow cooker, dutch oven, or soup pot one of the following:
Whole young chicken - if buying a fryer for soup, choose the largest available.
Chicken parts, any combination, 3 pounds or more.
Roasted whole chicken or roasted chicken parts.
Bones, skin, cartilege, fat, etc. of chicken, raw or roasted, from which the meat has been removed.
Chicken scraps make excellent soup; just skim the fat at the end, and strain out all the little bits. A few pounds of necks and backs will produce fine chicken stock! Dark meat makes better soup than white meat. The one thing you don't want to use for soup is boneless skinless chicken, especially not boneless skinless white meat.
Chicken-soup-to-be: just add water and heat |
1 large or 2 smaller onions
2-3 carrots
1-2 tomatoes
1-2 stalks celery
fresh parsley including stems
2-3 cloves garlic
1 tsp salt
sprinkle of pepper
Water to cover
No need to chop the vegetables. When served they are more appealing whole.
Our recipe assumes 3-5 pounds of chicken; if less, decrease the seasoning vegetables and perhaps the size of the pot. Too much water makes thin soup! If more, increase pot size, seasonings, and water proportionately. A roasting or stewing chicken will require longer cooking.
Chicken soup with soup vegetables in a serving container |
Set aside a portion of the soup for stock and return the remaining broth to your (rinsed) pot. Sort through the residue in your strainer, and return to the soup all pieces that are good for eating (carrots, onions, and whatever else you like) and throw the rest away. Now your soup is ready for whatever additions you want to make - see recipes for chicken soup here or here or elsewhere.
To see a full set of photographs showing various ways that chicken stock can be made, go to this slide show on flickr. (It will open in a new tab or window; to return to this page, just close it.) No need to read the captions as they are borrowed from various other sets.
Chicken Soup with Rice |
In December I will be
A baubled, bangled Christmas tree
With soup bowls draped all over me
Merry once, merry twice
Merry chicken soup with riceI told you once, I told you twice
All seasons of the year are nice
For eating chicken soup with rice-- Maurice Sendak
No comments:
Post a Comment