Chicken Broth and Yummy Soup

Shauna thanks for the invite! My name is Shelby and my husband was friends with Shauna and Darryl back in the day during high school. Good thing, because I've gotten to know Shauna! I'm a working mom right now, so while cooking and eating is important to me, so is the time it takes to prepare. So while I'm trying to make good wholesome meals, I'm also trying to figure out ways to do it that fit our schedule.

So in following with previous post, I have become somewhat of a connoisseur of making my own soup. I come from a family of soup lovers, and how easy is it to pop a can of soup into a bowl and into the microwave?? Well, that was fine and dandy until I found out really how easy it is to make that soup...from scratch. I feel like it's so much better too because, like the Fam (sorry, I don't know your name!) pointed out, it's nice to actually be able to pronounce the ingredients in your food. Here's one of our bi-weekly/monthly favorites at our house. This is a good one because it makes several meals for your family.

First, we buy a whole chicken. If you're going organic, I'm sure you can find something at a Trader Joe's or local farm. We haven't gone that far yet, but we're headed in that direction. I just pick one up from the local supermarket...okay let me correct that-Johnny picks one up, because he's the grocery shopper in our family. Anyway, you prepare it by cutting off the plastic wrap, taking out the yummy insides (don't worry they mostly come in a bag these days-you probably won't even see anything), and rinsing out the whole chicken in the sink until the water runs out clear. Then I put the chicken on a cutting board and season it. Usually it's nothing more than just salt, paprika, or poultry seasoning. It's good to coat the outside skin as well as between the skin and the meat.

Then I pop it into a crockpot in the morning and set it on low. That's it! By the time I get home at night, it's ready to serve. Try having it with some stuffing or mashed potatoes with green beans or steamed carrots and broccoli. Now here's the trick. Once you've had your yummy dinner, cut away all the chicken from the bones. We like to separate the dark and white meat, but you can do it how you like. Then you can use it in other recipes, casseroles, or freeze it.

Now take the rest of the carcass-skin, bones, and all and put it back in the crockpot. Fill the crockpot with water to as full as you would like. The water doesn't really burn off, so make sure you've got enough water. Then we may add some extra seasoning, but mostly we just let the crockpot simmer for overnight or longer on low. (When we're extra busy I think we've let the broth go for a day or 2...not that I'm recommending that!) When you're ready, strain off the chicken remnants. I start with a regular strainer and use a very fine strainer at the end. Put the broth into a pot and bring to a boil. I usually make my soup with white rice and wild rice, so I'll bring the broth to a boil, add the rice and let it simmer for 30 minutes or until the rice is cooked (read the directions on your rice). In the mean time, go ahead and cut some celery and carrots. Add in the cut up chicken last and you've got yourself some yummy soup. One caveat is that you really have to add salt to this baby. But I don't feel too bad about it since you really can see how much you are adding, and I can almost certainly guarantee it's less than what you get in a canned soup.

Shelby's Easy Chicken Soup

Broth from whole chicken
a few carrots peeled and chopped
2-3 stalks celery
white and wild rice
some fresh parsley chopped
salt to taste

1. Boil broth.
2. Add rice, cover and simmer ~30 minutes or until rice is cooked.
3. Add celery and carrots~10-15 minutes before soup is done.
4. Add chicken, cook until chicken is heated.
5. Add parsley and salt to taste.

Sorry about the measurements, but I really eyeball this and it just depends on how much chicken broth you make. Oh, and if you don't want to make so much soup, you can always freeze the broth for other recipes. Then it's nice to know what's actually in that chicken broth!