Recipe: Homemade Hearty Chicken Soup

[Dark Silver]

Prep time - 30-45 minutes
Cooking Time - 9 hours
Serves - 6 - 8 people

{ Ingredients }
1 - Whole Chicken
Assorted vegetable (potatoes, carrots, celery, onion, parsley - all to taste)
drinking or spring water

* Note: When using raw poultry, please take all safety precautions. Raw poultry is capable of transmitting Salmonila poisoning. Keep all tools and surfaces clean

{ Hardware Required }
1 - large (8+ quart)stock pot
1 - heat resistent spatula / cooking spoon
1 - set of cooking thongs
1 - colander
1 - cutting board (wooden or plastic - wood preferable for vegitables)
1 - knife (sharp)
1 - pair kitchen shears (optional)

{ Steps }
Prepare chicken by removing excess skin, fat and "giblets". If you have a pair of kitchen shears, it is suggested to use these as it will reduce risk of accidents, as well as making "slicing" the chicken open along the back bone easier.

Peel and cut vegetables to preference - making sure to wash with clean, cool water after peeling.

Add chicken and vegitables into stockpot, pouring water in till it covers the chicken and vegitables by 3".

Bring to a rapid boil on high heat, let boil for thirty (30) minutes, then reduce to medium heat. Cover stockpot.

Remain on medium heat for the next 7 hours, stirring occassionally. Add water if nessacry.

After 7 hours of simmering, remove whole chicken. Let cool, and drain in colander. Debone chicken, readding to soup vegetables and soup stock.

Let simmer for additional hour - hour and a half.

Serve.



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this one, obviously, isn't a quick thing. It's best to do this when you have an entire day to attend to it. You WILL have to season everything to taste early in the boiling/simmering process - or it will not easily pick up the flavors.

You could, I suppose, attempt this in a crockpot, but it will be difficult considering the whole chicken. It is nessacry to have a whole chicken as to have the best broth/stock in the final product.

Whole Chickens can be found amazingly cheap compared to the pre-cut pieces. You can put as much vegetables as you want in the soup, or whatever you want vegetable wise.

[LadyTevar]

If you don't want to cook it for 7 hours, 2 or 3 boxes of Swanson's Chicken or Vegetable broth could be substituted, like I do with my Chicken Noodle Soup. That way it can be done in about 2 hours.

My recipe:
16 oz Canned Chicken (in water) or deboned chicken/turkey meat
2 boxes (4-6cups) Swanson Chicken Broth
8oz White Wine (Reisling works very well, nothing expensive)
1tbsp Olive Oil
2 cups asst frozen veggies (lima beans, green beans, peas, carrots, corn, etc)
1/3 package "No Yolks" egg noodles

Spices * (all approx measures, I do dashes and shakes)
2 large or 3 small Bay Leaves
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp Paprika
2 tsp powdered Thyme
2 tsp rubbed Sage
2 tsp flaked Parsley or Cilantro
1 tbsp powdered ginger, or 3 quarter-sized slices of whole or crystalized ginger
2 tbsp pepper (I like pepper!)
* Salt is in canned chicken and chicken broth, so use very sparingly. I like low salt.

Pour Chicken broth and Wine into large stockpot on high heat. Drain canned chicken into stockpot along with meat. Add frozen veggies. If needed, add enough water to cover meat and veggies. Bring to full boil (5 min will burn off all alcohol), then add olive oil and lower to a simmer.

Taste to check saltiness, then add spices. Simmer for 30 min, stirring occassionally. Taste again, add salt if you think it really needs it, add water if needed. Add in noodles, simmer for another 30min, stirring often to keep noodles from sticking to bottom.

Remove bay leaves and sliced/crystalized ginger before serving. (Ginger can be cut small and added back, if you want to give tasters a surprise bite. Don't do that with the Bay Leaves, ingestion of whole/cut bay leaves can make you sick.)

[Dark Silver]

Yeah, I tend to omit the wine or other brands of alcohol used in a variety of my recipes, as some people dislike cooking with it, even if the alcohol cooks out by the time the product is finished.

In this case, 2 cups of white wine would be a good addition to my version of the recipe, and if you want to skip the extraordinarily long cook time (as it's primarily to make the broth part of the soup) you can indeed try the boxed/jugged Chicken broths in the store.

I just tend to avoid them unless in a real hurry because I sometimes find them overly salty....


I also tend to omit spices in my recipes, because some people prefer not to cook with spices...or having different tastes when it comes to which spices to use.

I'll have to try out your recipe though Tev, it looks rather tastey...

[LadyTevar]

I get rave reviews every time I serve it, and this time of year it's a great way to warm up. Since my kitchen has no heat or insulation, I can also keep the pot of soup on the stove, and heat it up as I need it.

This is also a recipe that gets better if it sits overnight, although the noodles have a tendency to break down.

[LadyTevar]

When you're sick and don't feel like much cooking, but know you need to eat.

Poor Man's Egg Drop Soup:
One package chicken flavour Ramen.
One egg, beaten

Cook Ramen according to directions in 3cup saucepan. Remove noodles from water (best you can) once limp. Drizzle egg into still-boiling Ramen soup, it will form a scum of frothy cooked egg on the top. Watch pot carefully, may try to boil over, and then you waste the egg. Lower heat, add ramen noodles back to soup & egg mixture and stir to make sure noodles and egg are completely cooked.