We dogs were most surprised when we ran out the door this morning and found...snow. It is only October and we think we will break the all time record for snow on Oct. 12. The record is from 1909 or so - 1.7 inches.
So, as is obvious, what with early snow, it was a day for chicken soup making. We are bringing back our favorite recipe from last year with some updates for 2009. You can read the original to find out how this is a soup scientifically proven to help you heal. (Or, read the Actual Study.)
This will help you heal faster if you're sick and boost your immune system if you're feeling fine, to keep you feeling fine.
We found a big 10 pound pack of chicken quarters on sale and it turned out that all of the packs of parsnips and turnips and the like were double what we needed - so we doubled the recipe and used all 10 pounds of bird. We also had just harvested the celery and parsley from our garden (before the snow) so we used homegrown. Mmm. Fresh. Our batch made about 8 quarts of soup for freezing.
With this recipe, you end up with extra cooked vegetables for another use and extra chicken for another use...but include the full quantity for the broth to fill out the flavor and make it extra healthy. Some people discard the extra veggies. You could mash them for a yummy side dish, or feed them to your pups if you leave out the onions.
Here's how we did it:
Healing Chicken Soup Me's Independent Rating: 3 of 3
10 lbs. of chicken
6 cloves of garlic (or more - it's all we had)
1 small pumpkin (or 2 sweet potatoes) (= 1 lb)
20 oz. parsnips (its the size of our bag...use whatever you have, a pound or so)
20 oz. turnips (ditto)
1 lb. carrots
3 lbs of onions
1 bunch celery (with leaves)
2 bunches of parsley
1/2 ounce Hiziki (or other sea vegetable...this is like seaweed or kelp)
1 Tablespoon salt
1 Tablespoon pepper
Soak the chicken in salt water 20 minutes and pat dry. Or skip the salt water and just rinse the chicken. Place in a big electric roaster. Cover the chicken with cold water. Bring to a boil. Meanwhile peel the pumpkin, parsnips, turnips, carrots, and onions. Leave them whole or in large pieces. Add to the chicken and boil 30-45 minutes, just until chicken is cooked.
Remove the chicken and large vegetables from the roaster and set aside. Skim fat from the broth, or pour in batches through gravy separator to remove the fat. Add the celery, parsley, hiziki and salt and pepper to the broth in the roaster. Dice about half of the vegetables and add to the roaster. Save the remaining vegetables for another use. Simmer soup 30 minutes.
Remove chicken meat from about half of the chicken. Save the remaining chicken for another use. Dice chicken meat and add to soup. Season with additional salt or pepper to taste. Heat through and serve.
Notes from Elias: For the sick and ailing, strain all of the veggies out and serve plain broth. Puree the veggies for a delicious side dish for later. Use the remaining chicken for chicken enchiladas!
Notes from Gute: We dogs love this day because we are allowed a lot of scraps and licking of pans when it's all over.
Post Script: Now, only 3 days later, all 8 quarts are gone. We fed soup to loggers clearing brush in the back yard, sent some home with two sick people, and had a little ourselves...
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