Thursday, June 10, 2010

Chicken Soup




It’s not the usual season for soup but I love homemade chicken soup. When the useless chicken pieces (wings and backs and the bones of boneless breasts) reach critical mass in my freezer and I have an open-ended day and my zodiac signs are all aligned, I make chicken soup.

I feel so virtuous when I make soup. Canned soup is awful and awful for you (ever look at the sodium content?) and the good stuff (Whole Foods) is so pricey, they should offer a lay away option.

Soup making is the epitome of “from-scratch” cooking and in my extended family being a good “from-scratch” cook is a badge of honor. I took to it early and never looked back.

Over the years I’ve cooked in many ways and for a variety of reasons. I’ve cooked elaborately and obsessively, healthfully and frugally, decadently and with financial abandon. And, yes, at times I’ve cooked resentfully. I’ve cooked for family, friends, neighbors, and strangers. I’ve cooked to show off and to nurture, to feel creative and to remain sane. I’ve cooked for charity and, a few times, for pay.

Mostly I’ve cooked to avoid housework. Cooking and child rearing have been my cross–the garlic cloves around my neck warding off the vampire. Housework. Never-ending, soul-sucking, circle of hell. Cook well enough and maybe people won’t notice they’ve worn the last ratty pair of clean underwear, or that giant dust bunnies are now terrorizing the cats. What’s a mountain range of toothpaste in the sink or an afghan worth of cat hair on the couch when the smell of chicken and artichokes with morels and crème fraîche is in the air? Dirty windows? Nasty floors? Nothing a little crème brûlée or double-decker raspberry white chocolate cheesecake won’t make you forget. It has worked for years.

But this year, my kids are MIA even for the summer. Kid duty, sporadic at best for years, is now a wholly unconvincing excuse. Elaborate dinner parties are dying too. College tuition for two and the fact that the compensation for my day job is more like an honorarium than a real salary, means it helps to be frugal in the kitchen. So healthy, frugal cooking is my new housework avoidance strategy.

And that brings me back to chicken soup. Chicken wings used to be dirt cheap but apparently because we Americans so love our deep-fried, sauce-soaked, blue-cheese dipped wings, they’re now more expensive than other more edible chicken parts and often in short supply. Go figure. Whole chicken or cut-up chickens come with two wings, however. You can’t skin a chicken wing so I find them grotesquely fatty and inedible. I cook the real chicken and freeze the wings until a day I have to do some heavy avoidance. I freeze dying bananas for the same reason. Yes, when you thaw them they look like alien slime, but close your eyes and use them anyway. Trust me, nothing makes better banana bread. More on that later.

1) So the chicken wings go in a big pot with chunks of onion, celery, carrots and water to cover. Most chicken soup stinks because people skimp on the chicken so I make sure to add some meaty chicken parts to the wings. Chicken leg quarters are usually very cheap. Then I add seasonings and herbs to taste. Use what you have. I like parsley, salt, peppercorns, whole cloves (3 or so), and thyme–fresh if I have it.

2) I bring the chicken to a boil and then reduce to a simmer for about 2 hrs. Next, I fish the chicken out of the broth and after it is cool enough to handle, I pull the meat from the bones and set it aside.

3) Keep the “dregs”(the bones, skin etc.) and put it back in the pot and simmer for another 1-2 hrs. I know “serious” cooks will be screaming because I’m pretty sure this makes your stock cloudy rather than clear. I don’t care. I just want intense flavor without having to use canned chicken stock with or instead of the water as many cookbooks recommend. The whole point is to not spend money on canned chicken stock!

I also do not bother straining the stock in any serious way. I just fish out the solids with a slotted spoon and then put the stock in the fridge to let the fat rise to the surface for removal (or not). I will say those wings can produce an amazing amount of fat so while I am sometimes too impatient or pressed for time to let the stock sit in the fridge the requisite number of hours, I really try to do it for health’s sake. It will taste delicious either way and, if we’re honest here, probably even a little better with the extra fat. So skim or don’t skim or miss a little when you skim.....it’s all good.

4) Once I have skimmed or not skimmed the stock, I re-heat it while I cut up more veggies. The ones you’ve cooked with the stock are now mush and should be discarded. I add cut up celery and carrots to the simmering stock and cook until just tender. I like to add frozen peas at this point for a splash of color. Pre-cook some wide noodles. I use the whole wheat ones because they are a little healthier. Don’t cook them too much or they’ll turn to mush.

5) Now I add the chicken I’ve set aside plus whatever leftover cooked chicken I may have in the fridge or freezer and adjust the seasoning. I often add a little more thyme (my favorite herb and absolutely made for chicken) and a little more salt.

6) Eat this for days or freeze in small containers. Yes, the noodles will mush some upon thawing and reheating but it’s homemade soup for God’s sake.

1 comment:

  1. Yum! Now I'd like some for breakfast! The photo of the meal is lovely. I always think of chicken soup for cold weather -- I'll think again, especially since we have fresh thyme.

    Our chive bouquet is about ready for the compost.

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