Saturday, November 6, 2010

chicken soul soup

It is a cool saturday morning Nov 6, 2010. The temperature is 50 degrees which is a welcome change for us in Florida. I decided to make a chicken soup with all the goodies i have from our local farmer's market and my organic chicken in the freezer. Here's what i have to work with:

one whole chicken (Whole Foods)
12 cups filtered water
fresh organic dill (1 large batch approx 1/2 cup chopped more is ok too)
3 - 4 organic turnips and greens
3 - 4 carrots peeled
1 white or yellow onion, greens of scallions
(i have no celery and it'll be the first time i have made chicken soup with out it but that isn't going to stop me from making it.)
by the way all my veggies are organic! the recipe serves about 8 people, or freeze half and eat for a couple days.

place the whole chicken in water with 1T rock salt turn on high heat. (my chick. was still frozen and it works fine)
cut a large onion in medium pieces and put in water. At the farmers market, I bought a huge batch of green onions with really long greens. I cut some of the greens off and then in 3'' long pieces and threw it in the pot. It's looking very pretty .
Next peel your carrots(3 - 4) and cut in large pieces keep them round, and 2" long.
Now the turnips... cut the greens off and save. clip off tips of turnip, don't peel, cut in half then quartered, and once again, so long as the pieces stay big. veggies won't be too soft and overcooked when soup is done.
Cut entire batch of dill in large bunches and throw in pot and cover. Keep on a low heat. Keep pot covered at all times.
Now it's time for my Ukulele lesson.
I am back an hour later.
Turned the very low flame off. I want to remove as much skin off the chicken as possible, which i do with a pair of stainless tongs, fork and knife. i just manage to do it while the process also separates some of the chicken parts, like the legs. throw the skin away. (this step is definitely optional)
Taste broth and add salt and/or pepper if you want. I also like some ceyenne or red pepper flakes. It's up to you.
Wash your turnip greens well. there's sand in them. Take the entire batch and cut in one inch strips and drop into soup.
Turn heat on again, bring to simmer for 5-10 minutes and turn off and let sit. you'll know when chicken is done when it falls apart easily which is what we want.
i just tasted the turnip and it's yummy. We started at 10:30 am and it's done at 1:00.

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