{ Ode to Chicken Soup }
It’s summertime (granted, the end of summer . . . but still quite warm). And I’ve got a cold. I was in Birmingham, Alabama last week to judge Cooking Light’s reader recipe contest and came home with the flu. Luckily, the drudge didn’t descend until I was getting back on the plane, so my tastebuds were in prime condition for the contest. I had a blast hanging out with my CL friends, and meeting new ones in fellow judges David Bonom and Jeanne Thiel Kelly, and what a wild corner of the food world the whole recipe cookoff phenomenon is . . . but that’s another musing altogether. This one’s about chicken soup.
Nothing makes me feel better than chicken soup when I’m sick. Not the canned stuff (Christopher got some ‘chickenless chicken soup’ the other day and it was awful), but the brothy goodness you get from simmering bones or a bird all night long so that when you refrigerate the liquid, it’s so rich it gels. I was so desperate after the chickenless chicken soup mishap that I asked Chris to grab a chicken and an onion from the market for me.
Many people think that making chicken stock (or soup, for that matter) is a complicated, drawn-out affair. But it isn’t. It took me about five minutes in robe and slippers to get my homemade chicken soup started. Here’s my basic strategy:
* Halve an onion (with skin on) and brown it cut-side down in a pot. Add whole cloves of garlic and chunks of smashed ginger too if you’d like and if you have them on hand. This takes about 5 minutes.
* Then plop either a whole bird, parts or bones in the pot and move them around a bit to sear for a minute or so. (do remove any plastic wrap or bags of giblets first)
* Fill the pot up with enough water to cover whatever’s in there by about 2 inches, then add coarsely chopped celery ribs, carrots, lemongrass, or anything you’d like to add a bit of flavor. I also salt it lightly, add some red pepper flakes and a bay leaf at this point.
* Turn the heat up to medium-high and bring the pot to a boil. This will take a while, so by all means sit down and put your feet up. When it starts to gurgle fairly substantially, skim off the grayish foam a couple of times with a wide spoon. I know people think this is a big deal, but it takes about 3 minutes if you do it at the right time.
* Lower the heat to medium-low or low — just enough for a few bubbles a second — and let it simmer for several hours or, my favorite, overnight. You’ll wake up to a house perfumed with a mouthwatering savory, meaty scent.
That’s the general gist of my chicken stock. From there, I’ll let it cool and strain it (a big strainer or China cap really, really helps here) and then add anything I want to make my soup. Chicken meat, meatballs, dumplings, seasonings, veggies, pasta, you name it. It’s just what you need for whatever ails you.