Monday 26 October 2020

Chicken Soup


Homemade chicken soup.  Indre et Loire, France. Photographed by Susan Walter. Tour the Loire Valley with a classic car and a private guide.

Chicken soup is a great way to make sure you make the most of a whole chicken.

 Making the chicken stock.
Making chicken stock.  Indre et Loire, France. Photographed by Susan Walter. Tour the Loire Valley with a classic car and a private guide.

Ingredients

Stock
A whole chicken
A leek, washed and cut into chunks
2 carrots, scrubbed and cut into chunks
Half a bunch of parsley
Celery leaves from 4-6 ribs
15 peppercorns
4 bay leaves
4-6 sprigs of thyme
5 litres water

Soup
Meat from the cooked chicken carcass, shredded
The stock made from the ingredients above (about 4 litres)
2 carrots, scrubbed and cut into tiny dice
4 celery ribs, washed and cut into tiny dice
A leek, washed and cut into tiny dice
5 cm fresh ginger root, peeled and finely chopped
1 hot red chilli, finely sliced
4-6 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 tbsp olive oil or chicken fat
1 cup vermicelli
1.5 tsp salt

Method  

Stock
  1. Remove the giblets from the chicken, cut off the wing tips and neck and remove the wishbone. Put all these bits in a large stockpot.
  2. Remove the legs, breasts and wings from the carcass. They are not required for the soup so put them aside to make another dish.
  3. Cut the carcass from vent to neck horizontally and cut the breast part across into two. Cut the spine part across into three.
  4. Put all the ingredients in the large stockpot. It should be quite densely packed with chicken and vegetable flavour ingredients. Top up with water if necessary.
  5. Bring to the boil, then simmer very gently for 4 hours. Stir once or twice during cooking.
  6. Leave to sit off the heat for several hours with the lid on, then put in the refrigerator to cool completely (overnight).
  7. Put a colander over a large bowl and lift out the larger pieces in the stock and place them in the colander, then pour all the stock through the colander.
  8. Set the liquid stock aside for the soup and separate out the pieces of chicken from the colander.
  9. Discard the cooked vegetables.
  10. Pull the meat off the cooked chicken carcass and set aside for the soup.
Soup
  1. Heat the oil in a large stockpot, then add carrots, celery, leek, ginger, chilli and garlic; sweat for 10 minutes on low heat with the lid on.
  2. Add the chicken meat then the stock, bring to the boil.
  3. Add the vermicelli and boil for 10 minutes.
  4. Add salt.
  5. Serves 10.
 Ingredients for chicken soup.Ingredients for chicken soup.  Indre et Loire, France. Photographed by Susan Walter. Tour the Loire Valley with a classic car and a private guide.

I bought the chicken at the market from my local poultry producer, who comes to the market in Preuilly on Thursdays and the market in Loches on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The veggies came from the organic market garden and orchard Les Jardins Vergers de la Petite Rabaudière on the outskirts of Preuilly. They come to the market on Thursday, and sell direct from the farm on Monday evenings. 

Diced vegetables being sweated.
Diced vegetables being sweated.  Indre et Loire, France. Photographed by Susan Walter. Tour the Loire Valley with a classic car and a private guide.

Poultry and rabbit at the market in Preuilly sur Claise.
Poultry and rabbit for sale at a market.  Indre et Loire, France. Photographed by Susan Walter. Tour the Loire Valley with a classic car and a private guide.

Organic vegetables sold direct from the farm.
 Farm sales of organic vegetables.  Indre et Loire, France. Photographed by Susan Walter. Tour the Loire Valley with a classic car and a private guide.


Yum

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12 comments:

Sheila said...

Lots of work, but so worth the effort. It looks delicious. Nice looking chard (blettes?) in that last photo.

Le Pré de la Forge said...

"9 -Discard the cooked vegetables." what a waste.... eat the boogers!!
Tell Simon that they are the new meat!

Susan said...

I buy chard (Fr. blettes) from them nearly every week.

Susan said...

Only worth pureeing and their main nutritional value would be fibre -- which, granted, hardly anybody eats enough of. I can't think of anything sensible to put them in though. They'd need so much additional stuff to be palatable.

Ken Broadhurst said...

I too say eat the vegetables. Looking at your first photo, I think you put them in the chicken soup. Good idea. Fiber is our friend.

Susan said...

I dunno. Look at all those people who cook new vegetables for Pot au feu or poule au pot.

chm said...

When I cooked Blanquette de poulet, I used to keep the onions and carrots as a side dish for another day. They were very good. No use to throw them away, what a waste!

Susan said...

Right. That's me told then. I guess there will be lots of vegetable veloute in our future. Meh!

Ken Broadhurst said...

Have you ever decided to try the blette leaf ribs? They are delicious. I often put them in stir-fried dishes. Fiber, you know. It's our friend.

Ken Broadhurst said...

I guess I don't know those people. Better to take the vegetables out of the Pot au feu or Poule au pot when they are done, let the meat continue cooking, and then put the vedge back in just before serving to warm up again.

Susan said...

Endless discussions on cooking forums about whether you are an 'eat the veggies that have been cooked with the meat' type or a 'do fresh veggies' type.

Susan said...

I'll use them occasionally, if I'm making something of sufficient quantity to disguise them or that they will just add bulk to in a useful way, where extra liquid doesn't matter. I used them in my last year's kimchi. They worked (as in the kimchi didn't go bad or anything) but they don't add anything at all, and I won't be doing it again this year. I have used them occasionally in stir-fries. I agree that fibre is much neglected and something to be actively sought, but chard stalks come down on the list with oversized zucchini and other stuff that is just dull and brings down all the nice ingredients that you might put with it.

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