Homemade is Best! Old Fashioned Chicken Soup Recipe!!

Today we wrap up our budget buster bulk cooking chicken journey.  We have made chicken and stuffing casserole, buffalo chicken pizza, Hawaiian BBQ chicken pizza, salsa verde, sour cream chicken enchiladas, chicken citrus super food salad of course our initial meal of roast chicken dinner and now for the grand finale.  There will be nothing left after this!  Taking the carcasses of the roasted birds as well as the bones and skin from what we have been using for all the rest of the goodness we have made and we are now making a delicious, nutritious and simple chicken soup.  

This soup is so easy to make and really you are making a good quality bone stock that will have shreds of chicken meat that will shed from the bone over the long cooking time.  I did not add anything fancy here.  Only simple aromatics such as celery, onion and carrot as well as a half a lemon.  I always like to add lemon to my chicken soup or stock because I think it helps to clarify the stock and reduce the "scum" that can sometimes build up while cooking.

I tossed everything in the pot from the freezer, added the veggies and a handful of seasonings.  I like to add parsley, salt, peppercorns, sage, bay leaf,marjoram and a few other spices.  You can add what you like, I would recommend going easy on the salt at the beginning.  Over time and the cooking process the flavors can concentrate.  You can always taste for seasoning in the end, and adjust to your taste.  

I cooked my soup for three hours on a low simmer.  Then I did my best to get all the bones and cartridge out of the pot.  This can be a daunting task, but keep at it.  Just when you think you get it all, another one pops up.  It can be maddening, but make sure to tell your family to watch for bones.  They can be small, but they are soft, and chewy most won't cause a problem.  I just like to let everyone know.  Don't give this to your dogs though because even a small chicken bone can splinter and cause a trip to the emergency vet and nobody wants that!

I don't ever cook my noodles in my soup.  I always cook them separate.  We each fix our bowls by putting the noodles in the bottom then ladling the soup over the top.  This way everyone gets their preferred soup to noodle ratio!  I much prefer to do things this way because I don't like the noodles in leftover soup.  They swell and get mushy and very unpleasant.  You should do what you like best.  If we were going to eat this all at one sitting then I may consider cooking them right in the soup pot, but this way I can use the leftover soup for yet another meal.

In the end, we had a 6 quart pot of delicious chicken soup that was chock full of meat and veggies.  We at well that night and we also had the soup for lunch the next day.  Then I strained the meat from the stock and allowed the stock to cool before putting it in the fridge.  I went through the remaining chicken to fish out all the bones and we fed it to our pets over a few days time as a treat.  There were 2 quarts of "jellied" stock left that I froze for another time.  Everyone saw benefit from these two chickens.  Even our dogs and cats!  I have some stock left for another use later down the line and overall I think we did great with two birds.  

I hope this encourages you to challenge yourself and see how far you can make two chickens last for your family.  Remember my chickens were 7 pounds each or there abouts.  You want to keep that in mind.  I don't think we could have stretched it this far if they had been smaller.

I hope you give this bulk cooking, chicken journey a try on your own and I hope you love it!

Happy Eating!

You can get a printable version of this recipe on my website here:

You can see how I made this in my YouTube video here:

Noreen's Kitchen

Homemade Chicken Soup

Ingredients

Carcasses of 2 roasted chickens including any bones and skin saved and frozen. 1 large onion, chopped 4 carrots, cleaned and chopped 4 stalks of celery with leaves, chopped 4 cloves of garlic, minced 2 bay leaves

1 teaspoon black pepper corns 2 tablespoons salt 1 teaspoon dried marjoram ½ teaspoon dried thyme 2 tablespoons dried parsley ½ of a large lemon, quartered Cold water to cover

Step by Step Instructions

Place all ingredients into a large stock pot, that is at least 6 quarts in size.  If you prefer, you can place the peppercorns into a cheesecloth pouch to make it easier to remove.

Cover the contents of the pot with cool water.  Bring to a boil over medium heat, then reduce to a simmer.  Allow soup to cook for 3 to 4 hours or until the meat has fallen from the bone and the bones are clean.

Turn off the heat and allow the soup to sit for 15 to 30 minutes.

Remove all the bones from the soup the best you can.  It may be impossible to get all of them because small rib bones are hard to fish out.  Just be sure to let your family know to be aware there may be small bones.

You can remove any large pieces of meat and shred them.  Then return them to the pot.

Cook noodles of your choice or rice to go along with the soup.  I like to do this separately because leftovers with noodles or rice are not that great.

Serve soup by placing rice or noodles in the bottom of each bowl then ladling the soup over.  Add more parsley to each serving and you can also sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese if desired and lots of cracked black pepper.  That is my favorite!

You can store any leftover soup with the chicken and vegetables in it for another meal or you can strain out the chicken and veggies and have chicken bone stock to freeze for another use. 

I strained my soup and fed the veggies and shredded meat that was left to my pets.  Nothing went to waste with the exception of the bones. 

The stock is “jellied” and perfectly delicious.  We will use this in another meal soon.

Chicken Soup, Quick, Easy, Hearty and Yummy!

I know that the thought of diving into a piping hot mug of chicken soup in the middle of August may be a bit unappealing, with temperatures outside tickling the 100 mark.  However, I am never one to go with the norm.  I am far from normal. I am also reminded of a book from my childhood when I cook chicken soup.  Because I am who I am and I sat down to write this blog entry about chicken soup, I could not forget to quote the wonderful children's author Maurice Sendak:

In August it will be so hot,

I will become a cooking pot.

Cooking soup of course! Why not?

Cooking once, cooking twice.

Cooking chicken soup with rice.

Alright, I know, but  barley just doesn't fit in that poem, so we will have to just take creative license and pretend!  Today' I am sharing a very fast chicken soup with barley.  This is really made from what you may already have in your fridge and pantry.  If you don't have these things, you should.  Really basic stuff that you can use to throw together a great soup when you have some chicken left over from Sunday dinner, or from that rotisserie chicken you picked up at the store last week, but don't have enough to feed the whole family with. You could, in a pinch even use a can of white meat chicken, drained.  I am not adverse to using chicken from a can as long as we use other fresh ingredients to make the rest of the soup good and wholesome.

Soup is one of the best foods around.  You can make anything into a soup.  Have leftover chicken? Make chicken soup, or tortilla soup or hot and sour soup.  Have left over roast beef, make beef barley soup, or Italian beef and tomato soup.  You can even make soup from stuff you didn't think you could make soup from.  Like the bits and pieces in your produce drawer.  Don't throw them away, make them into a wonderful veggie soup.  Whaz it all up with your immersion blender or in your blender, add a little cream or milk and you will have a lovely creamy vegetable bisque.

Soup feeds the stomach and feeds the soul.  Paired with a hearty loaf or biscuits or crackers, soup is a staple that I find myself falling back on over and over again.  Soup is filling and fulfilling.  It makes you feel satisfied, it makes you feel loved. It can be eaten with a spoon or sipped from a mug.  It can warm you up or cool you down, depending on what you choose to make.  You can have chicken soup in the dead of winter or you can have gazpacho in the middle of July.  You can have soup in times of plenty or in times of want.  For instance a big pot of bean soup will feed lots of people with little to no meat and you can share it for days or you can put on the Ritz and pull out the silver and good china and serve Vichyssoise (cold creamy potato soup).  I have my Aunt Linda to thank for my first taste of that silky deliciousness.  

Soup is a part of who we are as people.  There is not a culture on the face of the earth that does not have a soup associated with it.   I think because soup was always a way of stretching the food budget, and if you think about it, probably one of the earliest ways of feeding a cave-person family.  Once they figured out fire that is.  I also am reminded of another story of my childhood that I still read every Thanksgiving Stone Soup.  A great story or fable about how individually we can do great things but together we can move mountains, or for that matter, make soup!  So with that here is how you make Quick Chicken Barley Soup:

Quick Chicken Barley Soup

Here is what you will need to make this soup:


2 cups cooked chicken
5 stalks celery chopped
1 medium onion chopped
2 cloves garlic chopped
1 cup carrots finely chopped
2 cartons chicken stock
4 cups water
4 bullion cubes or enough granulated bullion to make 4 cups
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1 teaspoon dried marjoram
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon Mrs. Dash
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 cup quick barley
Salt and pepper to taste

In a stock pot heat oil.  Add onion and garlic and cook until you can smell garlic.  Add in celery and carrot and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.  Add in dried spices and stir to combine. Add in 4 cups of prepared bullion along with 1 whole carton of chicken stop and 1/2 of the additional carton.  Add chicken and stir to combine.  Bring to a simmer, and add in barley.  Cook covered for 5 minutes or until the barley has cooked completely.  Quick barley should only take about 5 minutes to be done.  Taste your broth and add salt and pepper to taste.  Serve with bread or biscuits or along side a sandwich or salad and you have a complete meal.  

I hope you try this and I hope you enjoy it.


Until next time.....................................See Ya!