Chicken Soup Recipe

INGREDIENTS

1 Chicken carcass from yesterday's meal

2 medium onions

2 medium carrots

2 celery sticks

2 medium tomatoes

2 garlic cloves

3 tablespoons (fresh) or 3 teaspoons (dried) chopped herbs. Use any available, we used parsley and thyme.

1 medium potato

1 level tablespoon tomato concentrate (optional)

Salt and Pepper to taste

1.2 litre (2 pints) of water

 
PREPARATION TIME: 15 minutes
 
COOKING TIME: 3 hours 5 minutes
 
DIFFICULTY: Easy
 
FREEZE: Yes
 
SERVINGS: 4
 
EQUIPMENT: One large pan (large enough for the water and the carcass plus vegetables), another pan or bowl, a sieve.

PREPARATION

Break up the chicken carcass so that it will fit in the pan

Chop herbs if using fresh.

Chop the garlic cloves

Chop the onions

Chop the celery

Top and tail, then lightly peel and chop the carrots

Chop the tomatoes

ADVICE FOR REAL CHICKEN SOUP

We have used vegetables that we had in the fridge at the time of making the soup. Almost any vegetables can be used to add flavour to the chicken soup stock, but don't add potatoes, these will be used to thicken the soup in the final stages. The same goes for the herbs, use whatever you have in the store cupboard.

We add a tablespoon of tomato concentrate in our recipe, this is optional. It gives the soup a warm colour which we like.

Most of the cooking time for this chicken soup recipe is taken up making the stock and requires little or no attention. You cpuld also make the stock using water and stock cubes which reduces the cooking time by two and a half hours.

However, this soup is all about the stock base, made from a real chcicken carcass. A couple of stock cubes will never produce the same result.

RECIPE INSTRUCTIONS

STEP 1

Put the chicken bones and any leftover meat and skin in a large pan and add 1.2 litre (2 pints) of water. Add the herbs and vegetables, season with salt and pepper to taste. Add the tomato concentrate.

Simmer (just barely bubbling) the mixture for 2½ hours. Stir occasionally.

Chicken Soup ingredients ready for cooking

STEP 2

After the ingredients have simmered for 2½ hours, pour the mixture through a sieve into another largish pan to remove all the solids.

You have now prepared a delicious chicken soup or stock which can be eaten as it is. We prefer to thicken up the soup with a potato as shown in the next step.

Cooked chicken stock / soup

STEP 3

Peel the potato and chop it into four pieces. Place them into the stock and continue to simmer for another 35 minutes until the potato has softened.

Either mash the potato into the stock or use a food blender. This will thicken the soup slightly. Taste and add any salt and pepper to your taste.

Potato for Chicken Soup

STEP 4

Serve the chicken soup into warm bowls. If you have any parsley or chives to spare, use them to garnish the soup.

Any bread goes well with this chicken soup, we served it with chopped French bread as shown in the picture.

Real Chicken Soup served in a bowl