Chicken Soup 3 Ways Recipes

BASIC CHICKEN SOUP

Steps:

• Bring chicken, water, and 1 tablespoon salt to a boil in a large stockpot. Skim foam. Add onions, celery, and garlic. Reduce heat. Simmer, partially covered, for 30 minutes.
• Remove breast, and set aside. Add carrots. Simmer, partially covered, for 40 minutes.
• Remove remaining chicken; discard back and wings. Let cool slightly. Remove meat from bones, and cut into bite-size pieces.
• Stir in desired amount of chicken; reserve the rest for another use. Skim fat. Season with salt.

CHICKEN, THREE WAYS

Steps:

• To begin: Cut the breasts from the chickens and refrigerate them until you are ready to use them.
• For the Broth: Put the rest of the 2 chickens into a large pot. Cover them with cold water. Bring the water to a simmer over medium-high heat, but do not let it boil. Skim off any fat and scum that rises to the surface. Once the water is simmering add the carrot, celery, onion, garlic, bay leaves, peppercorns, and white wine. Simmer slowly for 3 to 4 hours. Remove the chicken from the pot, set it aside to cool, cover, and refrigerate it. Strain the broth through a fine mesh strainer and refrigerate until ready for use. The broth can also be frozen.
• For the Poached Breasts: Season the breasts with salt and pepper. Place each breast into a small resealable plastic bag. Divide the butter, thyme, wine, garlic, and chicken broth evenly into the bags. Press out all of the air and seal the bags tightly. Keep refrigerated until ready to cook.
• Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat and bring it to a simmer. Add the bags to the water and submerge them; don't let the plastic catch the rim of the pan or they will melt. Poach them, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is firm and cooked through, about 10 minutes. Remove the bags from the water and serve the chicken immediately, using the liquid in the bags as the sauce.
• For the Salad: Pick the meat from the cooled chicken, discarding the skin and bones. Cut the meat into small pieces and put them into a bowl. Add the celery, onion, celery leaves, parsley, mayonnaise, mustard, vinegar, and salt and pepper, to taste. Mix until everything is evenly blended. Serve with salad leaves or make a sandwich.

CHICKEN SOUP FROM SCRATCH

Steps:

• Place the chicken, celery, carrots, onions, parsnip (if using), parsley, peppercorns, bay leaves and salt in a large soup pot and cover with cold water by 1 inch.
• Bring to a boil over high heat, then immediately reduce the heat to very low. Adjust the heat until the soup is "smiling": barely moving on the surface, with an occasional bubble breaking through. Cook uncovered, until the chicken is very tender and falling off the bone, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
• When cool enough to handle, use tongs to transfer chicken from the pot to a container. Taste the broth and continue to simmer it until it is concentrated and tasty. Strain broth through a fine sieve (or a colander lined with cheesecloth) into a separate container. Discard all the solids from the strainer (or reserve the vegetables, chill and serve with vinaigrette, if you wish).
• Refrigerate chicken pieces and broth separately for at least 8 hours (or up to 3 days), until a thick layer of yellow fat has risen to the top of the broth.
• When ready to finish the soup, use your fingers to separate chicken breast meat from bones and skin. Discard bones and skin. Use two forks to pull the breast meat apart into soft chunks, or use a knife and cut into bite-size pieces. (Reserve dark meat for another use.)
• Skim chicken fat from top of broth and set aside. Place 3 tablespoons of the fat in a soup pot with a lid. Add leeks, stir to coat, and heat over medium heat until leeks begin to fry. Then reduce the heat to a gentle sizzle and cook, stirring often, until slightly softened, about 3 minutes.
• Add carrots, sprinkle with salt, stir, and cover the pot. Cook until vegetables are just tender, about 5 minutes more. (Keep in mind that vegetables will continue to cook in the soup.) Do not brown.
• Pour broth into pot with vegetables and heat to a simmer. Add noodles and simmer until heated through, soft and plumped with chicken broth. Add the breast meat, then taste broth and add salt and pepper to taste. For best flavor, soup should have some golden droplets of fat on top; if needed, add more chicken fat one teaspoon at a time.
• Serve immediately, in a tureen or from the pot, sprinkling each serving with herbs.

HOMEMADE CHICKEN SOUP

Steps:

• Put the chicken, carrots, celery and onion in a large soup pot and cover with cold water. Heat and simmer, uncovered, until the chicken meat falls off of the bones (skim off foam every so often).
• Take everything out of the pot. Strain the broth. Pick the meat off of the bones and chop the carrots, celery and onion. Season the broth with salt, pepper and chicken bouillon to taste, if desired. Return the chicken, carrots, celery and onion to the pot, stir together, and serve.