Is it freakin' soup yet?

[mouse7]

A bachelor male's first attempt at a pot of homemade chicken soup.

I just cannot look at another red n' white can of chicken noodle. Screw it. I'm making my own damn soup.

I bought a soup pot. There were a whole bunch of soup pots at the Costco (highest paid retail workers in the country). If I'm going to make soup, I'm not going to do it ever day, so I got a big stainless steel 16 quart pot.

I go to the grocery store and get a chicken, a bag of onions, a bag of carrots, some celery, some spices I saw around the house when I was growing up, and a couple of bags of frozen mixed vegetables.

I begin when I get home.

I take the bird out of it's package. It's a little more than 6 lbs. I look at the size of the chicken... actually the height. I'll probably need more water than chicken. So I put 8 quarts of water an the pot and start the heat. Then the chicken. Hmm... I don't want to bake the chicken cause I want all the good stuff in the soup. So I get ready to throw the chicken in the pot. Salt. Put in 2 teaspoons.

Hmmm... do I or don't I want the giblets in the chicken in the pot? Not sure. Better not. Then again, I may not have a choice. This bird is still mostly frozen. Sooo... I run water over the chicken until I can pry the giblets out with a fork.

Now I toss the chicken in the pot and set the heat to low.

One hour later I check. Water's not boiling yet. So I set the heat to medium low.

One hour later. Water's still not boiling. Set heat to high. God damn frozen chicken.

One hour later. Water's boiling good now. I'll leave it for a while to make the stock.

Two hours later. The chicken is floating in what looks to be chicken broth... with some real knarly looking brown stuff floating in the water. Get slotted spoon and get brown crap outta my soup. Time to add some stuff. Chop up 4 onions, 4 carrots and 3 celery stalks and throw it in. Bay leaves... I put in 3 of those. Parsely flakes? okay...a tablespoon. thyme? Okay about a half a teaspoon. Garlic YES. A teaspoon of garlic powder. Pepper. Absolutely. Put in a bunch. But not a lot.

Now I'm gonna let it boil for a couple more hours. I'll pull the chicken out then, pull off the meat, chop that up, and throw in some more stuff.

(More to come)

[Rowdyboy]

1. Sounds like lunch

bon apetit!

[SheilaT]

2. Next time

cut up the chicken before starting to boil it. Also, wash the chicken thoroughly. A trick I learned from my mother-in-law is to let it sit for a while (20 minutes of so) in very salty water, and then rinse, rinse, rinse.

I put in a bunch of celery, bay leaves, and a little of the dried chicken broth during the initial cooking process. I'll throw out the celery but leave in the bay leaves. I also scrape a few carrots and add those at the beginning. When everything is nicely simmered for a while I'll take out the carrots and cut them up and put them back in.

Onions get added later on. Depending on what I'm actually make (chicken stew, regular chicken soup, or a vaguely middle-eastern thing I call Chicken of Muchness) I chop up the onions very fine or put them in in large chunks or perhaps saute them along with green peppers.

[mouse7]

4. The chicken did get washed

By accident, while I was trying to pry the giblets out of the bird, but it did happen. I had to run water over the chicken to thaw it enough.

[Interrobang]

11. No, no, no!

*Never* soak a chicken in salt anything, unless you're kashering it! Never add salt to the water in which you're boiling your chicken, either; that dries out the meat and makes it tough. Add salt at the end of the process, once you have all the vegetables and noodles or whatever in it.

I don't even usually wash chicken before I throw it in the pot -- just a quick rinse for a whole chicken, and nothing at all for chicken pieces. You don't want to wash off all the juice and the blood, after all (unless you really *are* kashering a chicken, in which case I'd recommend just buying the preapproved kosher kind!), because that's what gives it extra flavour. Don't worry about germs; the thing's going to be immersed in boiling water for several hours. It's going to come out food, as long as it was fresh to begin with.

I make my standard chicken stock with chicken, onions (added right at the outset for extra flavour), garlic (ditto), parsley, bay leaves, worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, soy sauce, mustard, about 1 tsp of vinegar (to tenderize the meat and free the calcium in the chicken bones into the stock), fresh cracked black pepper, a little paprika, celery and celery leaves, and dried basil.

My oriental chicken stock has chicken, onion, garlic, soy sauce, rice vinegar, black pepper, and a big piece of ginger. That can be used as the basis for wonton soup, tomyum soup, pho (with added stuff, of course), lemongrass soup (add lemongrass), congee (jook), or as stir-fry liquid.

[Loonman]

3. First off - low heat is for simmering, not boiling

You'll wait forever for a boil.

If you're adding noodles or rice to the soup, do not cook them with soup, itself.

Do not overspice.

Thaw chicken before boiling. Using chicken frozen only adds a ton of time on overall cooking time, as I'm sure you noticed.

Thoroughy clean chicken(giblets, etc.) before throwing in to boil.

Make sure chicken is thoroughly cooked - no pink spots.

Maybe instead of chucking whole chicken in, you should have cut into strips or chunks.

[mouse7]

5. It was supposed to be a "fresh" chicken

I bought it in the meat section, not the frozen food section. They ship everthing frozen these days though. I forgot to check it at the store. Live and learn.

[Loonman]

7. Yep

My first effort at steak was a travesty. You'll get the hang of it.

[eyesroll]

6. Turn your heat down

The soup should be simmering, not boiling. (Boiling makes the stock cloudy. It should still taste good, though.)

I actually like making stock out of a turkey carcass or (time saver here) a rotisserie chicken. I chuck the skin, pull a bit of the meat off (save it to add to the soup later or use it in a sandwich), break the chicken into pieces, throw in two carrots, two celery stalks (leaves OK), two parsnips, an onion (quartered), a handful of fresh parsley, a bay leaf or two, a few cloves, a few peppercorns. Add just enough water to cover everything. Heat up to just before a boil, then reduce to low and simmer for a few hours. I strain the stock, and freeze what I don't need immediately. For soup, I add back some chicken, and some of the carrots, celery, parsnip and onion (chopped up this time). Maybe some cooked egg noodles, matzoh balls, rice, whatever. Or, some mushrooms and wild rice, with some swirled-in sour cream at the end.

The brown crap was rendered chicken fat with cracklings. If you want to get in touch with your Jewish side (doesn't matter if you're Jewish or not), use a couple of spoonfuls of the chicken fat ("schmaltz") without the cracklings ("gribenes" -- these can just be eaten as is, although I don't care for them), one pound fully cooked broiled chicken livers, one medium onion (minced and sauteed), four hard-boiled eggs and salt/pepper to taste. Mash or puree the whole mess to the desired consistency. Serve on rye bread.

[pansypoo53219]

8. i never use raw chicken for soup

it just isn't like i like it, i use leftovers from baked chicken, and i use boullion with the bones and other stuff.
and don't forget to put a little garlic in. amazing what a little dried garlic can do.
and i alsways like to put marjoram in my soup. just nice. don't know why.

[MissMillie]

9. AMEN! Cook the chicken first

Roast the chicken first, and have yourself a meal.

I marinade the chicken in white wine, olive oil, water (just a little), garlic and spices (namely: rosemary, basil, salt & pepper). Let it sit in that all day long. Then I stuff the body cavity w/ onions, peppers and celery.

Then roast it.

That carcass makes AMAZING soup.

[mouse7]

10. Well... it's closer to soup now.

Pulled the chicken out of the drink. Seperated the meat from the bones and put the meat back in the broth. Added the 2 1 ib. bags of frozen mixed veggies. Tossed in a couple of cups of rice.

Now we wait. I'm going to give it a couple of hours.

[mouse7]

12. The result: He likes it!

The soup came out very good :)

The only problem?

I have almost 12 QUARTS of soup.

Guess I know what I'm having for lunch this MONTH.

[MissMillie]

13. Freeze some

now that the chicken has been cooked, you can re-freeze it.

[bubblesby2002]

14. You are a true renaissance man

If and when I make chicken soup, I usually roast the whole chicken first. Then I take all the bones and skin (sometimes the giblets too), a sliced onion, bay leaves, and parsley, and of course about a gallon of water, and simmer (after boiling starts) for a couple of hours. Then drain all the "stuff" out of the broth, then add any vegetables, noodles, etc. After another hour or so soup happens. I don't make it very often though, because I am single and end up with more soup than I can eat in a week. Freezing is okay but you have to remember it's in the freezer. That's the hardest part for me.:9