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© David Loftus
"Great kit makes cooking a pleasure."
feel good chicken broth
starter | serves Serves 6When I was young and felt unwell with a cold or a headache, my mum would make this soup to help me feel better. It used to make me feel like a million dollars after I'd eaten it. It's probably one of the simplest soups to make because it just involves slowly boiling a whole chicken in a pot with a few roughly chopped root veg. The fat marbles on top during cooking, but underneath it is nice and clear, like a consommé. Like consommé, if you want to serve this at a dinner party or you want to vary its flavour, the actual soup will always stay the same but the garnish that you add can differ from mushrooms, to florets of cauliflower, to julienned veg. Another nice thing you can do is add a splash of sherry or port just before serving to give it a little twang. All these things are great to try, but I just really like my mum's simple chicken broth. Her secret ingredient was a rasher of smoked bacon, and sometimes she'd add a few sprigs of rosemary for the last ten minutes.
Put your chicken, carrot, celery and bacon in a large saucepan, cover with water and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down and simmer slowly for an hour and a quarter, skimming the white residue off the top every now and again. Add your rosemary sprigs, shitake mushrooms and sherry (if you are using it) for the last 10 minutes, then remove the chicken from the pan. It should be perfectly cooked, and will be great for salads or sandwiches or for tearing into slivers to put into the soup. Season the soup with salt and ladle it through a sieve into bowls, trying not to disrupt it too much as you want to keep it reasonably clear. Add the chicken slivers and a few mushrooms to each bowl and drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil. The finished thing should be a kinda clear consommé.
• from Jamie's Dinners
ingredients
• 1 x 1.5kg free-range organic chicken
• 2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
• 2 sticks of celery, roughly chopped
• 1 rasher of smoked bacon, preferably free-range or organic
• 2/3 sprigs of fresh rosemary
• a handful of shitake mushrooms
optional: a splash of sherry or port
• sea salt
• extra virgin olive oil
• 2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
• 2 sticks of celery, roughly chopped
• 1 rasher of smoked bacon, preferably free-range or organic
• 2/3 sprigs of fresh rosemary
• a handful of shitake mushrooms
optional: a splash of sherry or port
• sea salt
• extra virgin olive oil
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I also add a bit of galic and onion with peel ( it helps add color) the secret to it not being too "watery" is to add just enough water to cover the chicken, try to keep it from boiling and just let it simmer a long time. If after you have refrigerated it becomes gelatinous, you have really made a good one!! That means its really rich! Some chefs say to never let this boil and to just cook very slowly to render out as much flavor as possible from the chicken.
I've put it back on with a bit of chicken breast and am going to simmer it down more. Although I confess, I don't really know what I'm doing!
Got a bit worried halfway through when the broth still tasted like water, but worked out fine.
I don't normally eat much salt with food, but gave this a good helping. :)
I usually cook my chicken broth in a nine- liter pressure cooker, because it’s time saving, healthy, and no need for skimming before putting the veggies inside. I put chicken giblets, veggies (as you have above), whole clove of garlic, peppercorns, half of the onion with skin, bay leaf and whole stalks of parsley. After I pour the cold water inside and cover with lid. I lower the heat to minimum when the pressure cooker starts to whistle, then it takes me only 30-35 minutes to cook the soup. I let the steam out from the cooker and strain the soup at the end.
Many people are afraid of the pressure cooker (Oh my God, this will explode!), so maybe you could demonstrate in your easy style that there’s nothing to worry. It’s just an idea for busy parents how to cook quickly and to have a good and cheap chicken soup.
Also, leftovers can be used for cooking veggies in a tinfoil (as it was presented in Jamie’s series).