Soup's On! Saturday: Versatile Chicken Soup

If you are new here, please read my newly rewritten info about Soup's On! Saturday. Thank you so much for stopping by. I hope you find a recipe -- or a few, and that you stop by again.


I remember My Older and Wiser Sister telling me years ago that she got three meals out of a chicken. She told me she made the chicken itself for one meal, used the leftover chicken in burritos or whatever, then used the bones -- and whatever else is left, to make soup. I took that to heart and began squeezing as many meals as I could out of one chicken.


These days I have a large family, and one chicken pretty much is stripped, like a school of piranha got to it, within minutes. And I have since been more educated on the benefits of using broth in general. So I try to use any stripped meat bones, of any kind, to make broth. The burritos, well, they will need their own protein source!


In my Menu Plan Monday a couple weeks ago I posted a recipe I received from a friend (which I also found online) called Sticky Chicken. Boy howdy, my family loves that. I made it nice and spicy that night for my spice lovers. And that pile of bones that was left afterwards is the picture I had in mind as I typed the piranha comment above! It was picked clean. I don't know that I have ever seen bones in this house picked so clean.

But there were still lots of wonderful juices in the pan as well as the bits tucked here and there, of meat and liver type stuff. So I made a bone broth overnight. The next day I added some fresh veggies (cabbage is my fave) as well as some cooked brown rice and some spices. My older son especially appreciated eating some of this nice, warm soup when he got home late from a long day at college, and even commented that it was really going to "hit the spot".

The next day was a Saturday and I was afraid there wasn't enough rice left in it to really make a meal, so I found a recipe online for Whole Wheat Dumplings and threw those in, along with one extra box of chicken broth just to make sure I had enough. It was a hit, and I made my chicken last for three meals:)

Most of you probably have heard (or seen) me mention the book Nourishing Traditions:The Cookbook That Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats. It is a fascinating read and really opens your mind to a whole new way of thinking about food and the way you prepare it. This link, to an article called Broth Is Beautiful, takes you to an article by Sally Fallon, the author of that book. The article is very interesting and explains some of the reasons why your Grandma always wanted to give you chicken soup when you didn't feel well.

Below, for my soup recipe this week, I am posting her recipe for making a good broth. I am adding my own italics/bold to a few parts I found especially helpful or interesting. Then you make it your own. Add rice, noodles, dumplings, more meat, veggies, herbs and spices (such as basil or lemon pepper) tabasco sauce -- or whatever makes it be your family's chicken soup.

"Stock or broth begins with bones, some pieces of meat and fat, vegetables and good water. For beef and lamb broth, the meat is browned in a hot oven to form compounds that give flavor and color--the result of a fusion of amino acids with sugars, called the Maillard reaction. Then all goes in the pot--meat, bones, vegetables and water. The water should be cold, because slow heating helps bring out flavors. Add vinegar to the broth to help extract calcium--remember those egg shells you soaked in vinegar until they turned rubbery (Tiffany notes, use about a half tablespoon of vinegar per quart of chicken broth. You really don't taste it).

Heat the broth slowly and once the boil begins, reduce heat to its lowest point, so the broth just barely simmers. Scum will rise to the surface. This is a different kind of colloid, one in which larger molecules--impurities, alkaloids, large proteins called lectins--are distributed through a liquid. One of the basic principles of the culinary art is that this effluvium should be carefully removed with a spoon. Otherwise the broth will be ruined by strange flavors. Besides, the stuff looks terrible. "Always Skim" is the first commandment of good cooks.

Two hours simmering is enough to extract flavors and gelatin from fish broth. Larger animals take longer--all day for broth made from chicken, turkey or duck and overnight for beef broth.

Broth should then be strained. The leavings, picked over, can be used for terrines or tacos or casseroles. Perfectionists will want to chill the broth to remove the fat. Stock will keep several days in the refrigerator or may be frozen in plastic containers. Boiled down it concentrates and becomes a jellylike fumée or demi-glaze that can be reconstituted into a sauce by adding water."

Please don't forget to look at the other recipes linked here throughout the week.

Have a wonderfully healthy, wholesome and comforting chicken- soup- for- the- soul kind of week!