chicken-soup-heave_cooking

One of my favorite comfort foods in the fall and winter is a beautiful roasted chicken with roasted potatoes and carrots. There is just nothing better—except making chicken soup afterwards. This post is basically just a public service announcement to say, when you roast a chicken, don’t throw the bones away! Keep them and make stock or chicken soup!

I still have stock in the freezer from when I made bone broth the last time.  This time I decided to leave some of the chicken on the bones, and boil it all to make chicken soup. I just love the smell of the house when I am making stock. It makes me feel like all is right in the world. It is a warm and fuzzy feeling. It speaks to my soul.

To the chicken and bones I added 6 cups of filtered water. I boiled it until the liquid had reduced by half – this took several hours over low heat and produced a very dark and rich broth. I let the pot cool and then threw in the fridge over night.

The next day I skimmed off the fat and took the meat off the bones. Then I looked around in the freezer and on the counter top to see what I had in terms of veggies. There were some frozen peas and summer squash, as well as a few lonely fingerling potatoes. So I chopped up the potatoes and added them to the broth with the chicken and other veggies. I let everything simmer for about 30-40 minutes, and then served.

This is such a simple, yet economic, hearty and extremely tasty meal! So the next time you have bones (of any kind) make soup!