Something to Warm You Up: Chicken Garden Soup

It is snowing right now in Copenhagen and I am so glad that I am at home sitting under my covers! 

The fiance and I made this Chicken Garden Soup from Jamie Oliver last week and I wish we had some leftovers in the fridge for a windy and cold day like today. To make this chicken soup, you need a chicken carcass with some meat left on it still. So if you're planning on roasting a chicken or buying a rotisserie chicken for dinner this week, eat it, and then save the leftovers and the carcass for this soup! The fiance and I actually ate all the meat on the lemon thyme roasted chicken I made last week so I roasted some more chicken thighs and drumsticks so that we'd have some meat in our soup. And seriously, homemade broth is so healthy for you! 

Chicken Garden Soup (slightly adapted from Jamie Oliver)

Makes 6 servings

6 carrots

6 celery stalks

2 onions, peeled and roughly chopped

2 bay leaves

2 fresh thyme sprigs

salt

freshly ground pepper

4 whole peppercorns

1 roast chicken carcass, with leftover chicken attached

1 large knob butter

olive oil

2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely sliced

1 onion, peeled and finely sliced

2 1/2 soup bowls worth of kale, washed and shredded 

200g spinach (we skipped this because we didn't have any)

1/2 lemon

To make the stock:

Wash 2 of the carrots and 2 of the celery stalks and roughly chop them. Add them to a large soup pot with the onions, bay leaves, thyme sprigs, peppercorns, the chicken carcass and a large pinch of salt.

Fill the pot with cold water until everything is covered. Place a lid on the pot  and bring the stock to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for at least 1 hour, skimming off any scum that rises to the surface from time to time. I cooked my stock for about an hour and a half. (Add salt and pepper to taste, you might need more than you think to get some more flavor.)

To make the soup:

About 20 minutes before your stock is ready, start preparing the other components of the soup. Wash and peel the remaining carrots, wash the remaining celery stalks, and slice them nice and evenly. In another large pot on low heat, melt the knob of butter along with some olive oil. Add the garlic and sliced onion and cook for 5 to 10 minutes, until soft but not caramelized. Add the carrots and celery and cook for another 5 minutes.

When your stock is ready, remove the chicken carcass, pull of any remaining meat and leave that meat to the side. The rest of the carcass can be thrown away after this step. Strain your stock through a sieve into the pot with the softened vegetables. Bring soup to a boil and then simmer for 20 minutes. Add the kale and simmer for another 10 minutes. Finish the soup by squeezing in the juice of half a lemon and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Add the leftover meat to the soup and serve! 

To bulk up our soup a little bit more, we cooked a little bit of rice and mixed that into the soup. Quinoa would have also worked too! 

I think chicken soup is the perfect remedy for a cold wintery day! Sending warm hugs out to you today!