Monday, February 13, 2012

SOUP DAY!!

Old Man Winter has returned to the desert.  Time to clean out the freezer and make soup. Whenever I buy a whole chicken I always save the parts I don't use like the back or neck or whatever is not going to be cooked that day to make stock.  So I have a bag of frozen chicken parts that is ready to go into the soup pot.  Today I will make a nice chicken stock and then use that to make some easy chicken and dumplings.  Check back later and I will share the recipe for the chicken and dumplings.

To make the stock I just put the chicken parts - still frozen - in the soup pot.  Then I add water to cover,  add the ends of celery, some onions and garlic.  Bring this to boil and then turn down to simmer.  I simmer all of this for about 4 hours.  Then I turn off the heat and strain out the solids.  By the way I use the end pieces of veggies to make stock.  Today I even used green onions.  I don't worry about cutting or dicing. I put them in the pot and let them cook. If you have any left over veggies you can certainly throw them in too. Use whatever you have on hand and remember that it will all be strained before you use the stock.

Don't forget to add a bay leaf and other herbs like rosemary and thyme. You can make stock out of anything - veggies - beef - chicken - turkey.  What ever you have.  It is easy and very economical.