Chicken Soup
It wasn’t until I started making this chicken soup that I realized that not only do I like soup, I love it. For a long time, I just thought that soups always seemed vaguely mushy and under seasoned – watery at best, overcooked grey vegetable puree at worst. But this year in my hometown on the coast it got wet and cold (something I happen to love because the ocean makes everything misty and a touch more magical) and I started craving it. It helped that I learned how to make a Chinese style chicken stock when I was in New York that I could repurpose as a fully functional, hassle free way of making soup. One of the hardest parts of homemade soup is the stock – it takes so long to make it that we often use a lot less of it than we should and miss out on a lot of flavor as a result. The method we use here is to simmer a whole chicken with aromatics for about an hour and a half, until the chicken meat is tender, removing the chicken and shredding the meat and adding it back into the pot with vegetables and starches of our choice. What is so great about this recipe – as with other good recipes – is that it is so versatile! Any variety of aromatics can be used to flavor the broth and invite different variations or additions. We’ll start with a basic chicken vegetable soup here, but feel free to experiment on your own once you’ve mastered the technique!
Chicken Soup
Equipment
Large Pot or Dutch Oven
Tongs
Large Bowl
For the Broth
1 whole chicken
1 onion, halved
1 head of garlic, halved,
1 celery stalk, cut in two pieces
1 carrot, cut in two pieces
About 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
For the soup
1 onion, medium dice
3 carrots, peeled and cut into 2 inch pieces
3 stalks of celery, medium dice
4 medium potatoes (I love red skinned for this soup), cut into 2 inch pieces
thyme, savory or dried rosemary
pinch each of ground coriander, cumin and paprika
salt
fish sauce and/or white soy
clove of garlic
To make the broth place the whole chicken, halved onion and garlic head, celery, carrot and black peppercorn in a large pot or dutch oven and cover with cool water, leaving an inch of space between the surface of the water and the rim of the pot. Bring to a boil and immediately reduce to a low simmer (2-3 continuous bubbles while) and cover, checking periodically to skim the scum from the surface. After about 90 minutes, peel off part of the chicken’s skin to check the meat. It should be very soft and easily shred. If you taste it, it should melt in your mouth. Once the meat is tender, use your tongs to remove the chicken and aromatics from the pot, placing them in a large bowl. Increase the heat so that the pot is vigorously simmering and add in your vegetables with a generous pinch of salt. Using your tongs and a fork if necessary, remove all the meat from the chicken, tearing any large pieces like the breast into smaller chunks. Put the chicken meat back into the soup. At this point, taste the broth and see how much more salt you want to add. Add in the spices and herbs and a dash of white soy and/or fish sauce for a nice depth of flavor. Right before you turn of the heat, grate in half a clove of garlic with a microplane and stir to combine. Remove from heat and serve in bowls garnished with chopped parsley and a side of crusty bread.
