Meet my secret, eat-it-all-to-myself soup made with the leftovers from yesterday’s roast chicken dinner.
I don’t share any of this soup. In fact no-one in my family even knows it exists.
Whilst everyone’s at school or work, I cackle quietly to myself as I’m lacing it with golden, fried mushrooms – knowing that I’m the only lover of mushrooms in our family. The mushroom witch, that’s me. I get it from my mum (the mushroom loving bit, not the witch bit).
I suppose now the secret’s out, I’ll have to concoct a special soup for everyone else in the family. Mmmm let me see…..
Chris – the meat-lover:
Spicy chicken noodle soup with a sprinkling of crispy bacon and a side of charred-steak strips for dipping.
Gracey – the pepperoni and ‘crispy bits’ lover:
Tomato soup with pepperoni, topped with crispy grilled cheese, with a side of crusty bread (so basically a pizza in soup form)
Lewis – the any-form-of-potato lover:
Loaded baked potato soup topped with a mashed potato quenelle and potato wedges for dipping
Excellent. I’ll whip those up at erm… some point. Now I can get back to enjoying my soup guilt free.
So here’s a quick version of what you need to do:
After you’ve had your roast chicken, strip off any little bits of meat you can find. It’s a messy job, you really have to pull it to pieces to get the most meat from it. Wrap those bits up and refrigerate, and then put all the leftover bits of chicken in a large pan. Cover with cold water, and add salt, pepper, onion and a couple of carrots.
Bring it all to the boil and let it simmer for 2-3 hours. Then put a sieve over a large bowl, and empty everything into the sieve. Throw the sieve contents away, and in the bowl you’ll have some amazing stock to use for this soup or for other recipes such as this or this. You can also cool and freeze it to use for tasty quick gravies and risotto later.
Next you need to fry up some onions, mushrooms, garlic and chillies in butter, add some flour (see notes for gluten free) to make a roux, then slowly add in the stock whilst stirring. When the sauce has thickened, add in the chicken, cream and a little lemon juice.
