Sunday, November 27, 2011

Go To Meals: Chicken/Turkey Soup

Often during the summer we will throw a whole chicken on the rotisserie on our barbeque. The flavor is great and the kids love it. We're not real big on leftovers so saving all of the extra meat and the entire carcass is perfect, especially because I know that come fall I get to have this!

To freeze: stuff all of the carcass, including any bones that you've eaten off of, any uneaten pieces of meat and skin pieces, into a gallon freezer bag. Put in the freezer.

Note: Please also use your turkey carcass from Thanksgiving. It's delish, and a great way to extend the life of your bird, so to speak!

Chicken Soup:
One chicken carcass, taken from the freezer. Put in large stock pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and simmer for about an hour (Or less, or more. Whatever.) Remove from heat, use a slotted spoon to remove all meat and bones from broth. Let bones cool until you can handle them. Pick all meat from bones and return to pot with broth, discard bones.


While bones are simmering gather veggies to put into the soup. I typically use: onion, celery, and carrots. That is a basic soup. This time I used a can of rotel, an extra can of green chiles, and frozen peas and corn. You can add just about anything, really, in any combination. I also tend to use a simple can of diced tomatoes instead of the Rotel. Like I said, just use what you have on hand.

Add veggies to broth with meat. Simmer. Add other seasonings to taste. (When we cook a chicken on the rotisserie we dry rub it so I always wait to season until after the veggies are in. You never know how the flavor will go.) You can add: bay leaf, sea salt, pepper, basil, thyme, oregano, lemon pepper. Start with a little, let it simmer, then taste and add more if you need to.


Finally, about 15-20 minutes before you're ready to serve add either a cup of rice, or like I did this time, add egg noodles. (A little or a lot, whichever you prefer. This picture was taken before I added the broth from the pot so it looks a lot thicker than it actually was.)


This can take as little time as an hour or all afternoon and smells divine. My recipe feeds 4-6. If you need to feed more you can simply add a small chicken breast to the simmering carcass.

Enjoy!

Headless Mom

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