Anyone have a great chicken soup recipe?

[Devonchills]

Any chicken soup I've ever made has been kind of bland.

I'm full of a cold and keep day dreaming of chicken soup!
Any good recipes greatly appreciated!

Stock or cream of?

I have a pot on now. Carcase of chicken plus some carrot, celery andonion that have been lurking at the bottom of the freezer for a while. I threw some frozen herbs in, not sure what they were, probably thyme and oregano plus a bay leaf.

It has been brought to the boil and will simmer for a couple of hours. Tomorrow I will skim the top, sieve it and reboil it, adding salt, pepper to taste. Then I will freeze it back in various portion sizes, soup, gravy etc.

When we want soup we take a soup sized portion and add whatever we want to it:

Noodles, shrimp, sweetcorn with or without thais spices

Creamed starts with potato and any more carrot, onion I might have, tossed in oil and some flour then slowly add the stock/cream mix (1 cream to 4 stock ish); bring to boil, cook until potates are soft then blend it. Add bits of chicken etc if you want.

But the usual one has a poached egg in it, with noodles and shredded spring onions, ginger maybe, pak choi maybe - whatever is in the fridge.

we used to always have a roast chicken on a sunday then chicken pasta soup on a Monday. I would strip the chicken, then sautee onion, celery, carrots and a little bit of garlic in olive oil and butter. Add water, white wine and those chicken jelly stock pots (or very occasionally homemade chicken stock, but not often). Simmer until cooked. Add leftover chicken and simmer. Then add twisty pasta. i would always add fresh chopped parsley right at the end and maybe a little squeeze of lemon.

Always eat with a nice slice of fresh sour dough and proper butter. Maybe a slice of cheddar cheese. The key bits for me are a roasted chicken and long simmering with more stock jelly pot than you think you need.

I have never made anything other than a salty water from those stock pots. I wonder what I am doing wrong with them?

Boil chicken breast, then shred. Sauté some cubes onions in butter/oil. Add shredded chicken, salt, black pepper and ground cumin. Make a pot of knorr veg soup packet. All to chicken and let it come to the boil, add a handful dry noodles. Cook until noodles are done. Garnish with chopped coriander. Add salt and pepper as per your preference. We like it a bit spicy.

I make chicken soup that is similar to the Scottish cock a leekie.

I boil the left over chicken carcass for at least 2 hours to obtain the stock. This is essential ingredient. I add an onion and a carrot. This is then strained for the soup base.

Sweat an chopped onion or 2 then add leeks, carrots, swede, potatoes. All chopped small. Then I add a couple of handfuls of barley and maybe some split red lentils. Add stock and top up with water. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer for about 45 mins. Time not critical. Add left over chicken that was shredded from the carcass.

This is not really a recipe. It’s a flexible soup depending on what vegetables you have to hand. But I would say the chicken stock and the leeks are essential.

The key is in the stock. Stick the carcass in a slow cooker overnight with scraps and a good dash of cider vinegar to break down the gelatine. You’ll get a very thick gelatinous stock from that which I tend to divide into three batches. Repeat with the same bones for a thinner stock.

Then make your soup using the stock you’ve made.

Beef bone broth/stock is a game changer for french onion soup.

You’ll never look at an oxo cube in the same way again.

@CuriousaboutSamphire

I have never made anything other than a salty water from those stock pots. I wonder what I am doing wrong with them?

Yes, me too - I don't rate them. I use a couple of chicken oxo cubes instead.

A basic ‘Jewish Penicillin’, for us is :

Whole chicken or 1.5kg of bone in chicken pieces
4 Onions - half but leave skin on
4 sticks of Celery
8 Carrots
2 Bay Leaves
Handful of fresh Parsley
Handful of fresh Dill
If you have a parsnip or swede lying around Chuck that in too but not an essential.

Put all in large pot and just cover with cold water. Bring to boil, skim off any scum. Then add Heaped Teaspoon Black peppercorns and same of salt. Can add a stock cube or 2 for extra flavour. Reduce heat and simmer for 2 hour. Remove chicken, strip off the meat and add carcass back to broth. Simmer for another two hours. Serve with some of the meat and carrot and ideally a kneidl .

If you want to remove the fat, chill and skim off like you would with meat juices. Then serve.

Onions garlic ginger, lots off. Add chicken stock and miso paste. Frozen sweetcorn, cooked shredded chicken, pak choi for last 2 mins and add maggi seasoning afterwards followed by noodles

I like this recipe from Bon Appetit. Straightforward to follow and it freezes well so long as you put the serving veggies and pasta in your container after it’s come off the heat for a little while.

I use Jamie Oliver's chicken matzo ball soup recipe - I think he calls it Jewish penicillin or something similar.

I've never actually had it before (other than when I've made it) so I don't know how authentic Jamie's recipe is. But I always make it when I'm ill now. It feels like it sorts me out!

I have just made this with DS - it’s our staple go to soup and I can’t even begin to tell you how amazing it is!

It’d sort out your cold too!

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/moroccan-haira

Chicken and sweetcorn soup for two.

2 chicken thighs, diced
1 tbsp corn flour
Oil
2 corn on the cob (or a couple of tins of sweetcorn)
2 chicken stock cubes
1/2 Tsp black pepper
1 egg
1 tbsp corn flour & 1 tbsp water, mixed
2-3 Tsp soy sauce

Coat the chicken in a tbsp cornflour and fry in the oil until brown. Cut the corn off one cob (or use one small tin of sweetcorn) add to a jug with 800ml water and 2 chicken stock cubes. Blend until smooth. Add the stock in the pan with the chicken and season with the black pepper. Add the second lot of sweetcorn. When bubbling, whisk the egg and add to the pan, leave to settle for 10 seconds then stir gently.
Once the egg is cooked, add the cornflour and water mix to thicken and season with the soy sauce before serving.

Roast up some chicken thighs or a whole chicken. Strip the meat off the bones and keep all the bits like skin, cartilage, wing tips, etc. Make stock purely from the bones, water and sea salt, ensuring that it's well reduced so that it tastes good just as it is.

Cook onions on a gentle heat with a pinch of Seasalt until they're starting to darken. Add leeks just before that point so they go fluorescent green and crushed garlic so it doesn't burn. Add stock, parboiled potato and cooked carrot/swede. Once they're all piping hot, add your shredded chicken and any dumplings (make those with lots of pepper and some mustard powder) or noodles.

If you want some heat, add some chilli finely shredded or gochujang now, perhaps some soy sauce/sake/mirin or shreds of savoy cabbage. If you want it thicker, use some cornflour or potato flour slaked in a little water and watch it thicken on a low heat.

Add a lot of freshly chopped herbs (parsley or coriander) with the heat turned off or if you want miso, mix that in through a tea strainer so it's smooth and the prebiotics aren't killed. Add chopped spring onions and frozen peas/sweetcorn so that they stay tasting fresh as they'll warm through in the residual heat (with the lid on).

Finish with a splash of sesame oil and sesame seeds if it's got soy/miso in it, if you want heat, togarashi seasoning or chilli flakes.

Ooh, lovely ideas. Key is definitely stock. My best recipe is strip carcass & then roast just the bones for half an hour in a hot oven, then add these to the meat, onion, carrot, celery bits & throw a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar on the roasted bones, ( it helps bring out the flavour). I put it in the instantpot for 1.5 hours odd.

Best stock ever! I use it for most soups but especially veg broth-celery, carrots, leeks, parsley, barley, lentils & peas. Yum!

Thanks everyone, some fantastic recipes there.