Day 27 - Chicken soup

Ok, I'm not even gonna try to be bashful about this...my home-made chicken soup is da bomb! This is a first time recipe for me. I searched around online, got a base for a wild rice chicken soup and went to creating a masterpiece. The special part about this chicken soup is that it is ENTIRELY from scratch. I bought the whole chicken, roasted it, made chicken tacos out of the meat, boiled the carcass for stock, picked the rest of the meat off the bone, used stock for soup. Nothing wasted. I gave the bones to the raccoons. So, in this post, I'm gonna share some recipes.

First, roasted chicken. Honestly, roasting a chicken is about as easy as it gets. I make a rub, which I slather under the skin and let sit in the refrigerator overnight. Here's the mixture for the rub:

2 ts salt

1 ts sugar

1/8 ts ground cloves

1/8 ts allspice

1/8 ts nutmeg

1/8 ts cinnamon

5 cloves garlic, crushed

I also squeeze a lemon over the chicken and put the squeezed lemon inside the chicken with some apple slices. I don't know what this does, I just do it. Seems to work out for me. Roast 15 mins at 450/500, baste with drippings, reduce heat to 425 and roast for 30ish more minutes. Internal temp should be 180 F, let cool 20 mins before cutting into it.

I just pull as much meat as easily comes off and then save the carcass to boil. I like to use the meat to make tacos. I make my own taco seasoning. 'Tis as follows:

1 Tb chili powder

1/4 ts red pepper flakes

1/4 ts oregano

1/2 ts paprika

1/2 ts cumin

1 ts black pepper

3-5 cloves garlic

1 small onion

I'll sauté the onion and garlic in a bit of olive oil, throw in the spices and mix around, add chicken and maybe a 1/2 cup or so of water and let simmer for 5-10 minutes. Bam! Chicken tacos. I've basically been eating 3 tacos for lunch all week. It's a lot of food.

Ok, now, chicken stock. Throw the carcass in a big pot, cover with water, simmer on low all day. Strain the stock, let cool. Laddle as much of the fat off the top as you have patience for...pick the rest of the chicken off the bones and throw in the stock. That's it. It's super easy. Think of all the goodness in that stock. AND, it's not over salted like the chicken broth in the store. I looked at that broth today, it's disgustingly salty.

Now for the crowning glory. The wild rice chicken soup that I'm eating as I type this post. First step, cook the wild rice. Look up how to do it online, that's what I did. I've never actually cooked wild rice before, this was my first go-round. Good stuff. I used a cup of dry to 3 cups of water. I think next time I'll use a little less water, maybe 2ish cups. Also, I bought a few extra chicken breasts to add to the soup. Cube those and cook them up at any point. For the actual soup, throw all the following ingredients in a big pot, bring to a boil, simmer for 30 minutes. I didn't measure anything, just went on what I thought might be appropriate. All veggies were chopped coarse, all herbs chopped fine.

Chicken stock (I used all of the stock I made)

celery

carrots

green onion (chopped fine)

okra

shitake mushrooms

parsley (Patrick, here's a good use of parsley)

thyme

3 cloves garlic

a few dashes of white pepper

salt to taste (not a lot for me)

lots of black pepper

1-2 Tb nutritional yeast

After the 30 minutes is up, melt 2 Tb butter, stir in 1/4 cup all-purpose flour, add to soup and stir. This adds a bit of thickness as does the okra, and considering the yield of the soup, I don't think the amount of butter is really gonna mess with our diets. Add extra chicken, wild rice and 1/2 cup of dry white wine. Heat through and serve. Keep in mind that the wild rice will take almost an hour to cook.

Here's a pic of my dinner tonight. It's a hearty soup for the cool evenings. A little goes a long way. The saltines are a little comfort food. Takes me back to my childhood.

The picture just doesn't do it justice. It was a wonderful soup, not too salty but full of flavor and freshness. So, my KFB lovies, that is how you buy chicken at its most inexpensive and use it to its full potential. I encourage you all to give it a try....

So, for mindful consumption tomorrow morning, COLOMBIAN HOT CHOCOLATE, that's right I hollered it at ya. Hot milk, melt in the chocolate that I received as a gift, drink mindfully. :) I've been saving this gift for the right occasion.