Chicken Vegetable Soup

riginthering

OK, so I am big on peasant cooking. Also on stretching a dollar till it hyperextends something.

If you have just two chicken quarters and about $5 worth of root vegetables, you can make enough food for at least 8 generous servings. The stock is rich, but there are very few calories in it per serving. I pair it with a salad (see my other post), and have a cup of soup and a bowl of salad and I'm a happy monkey. My husband adds in a scoop of brown rice and mixes it all together to make it more solid/add carbs.

You need:
1 tbsp olive oil
2 chicken leg quarters (dark meat has more iron and tastes better anyway)
1 brown onion, chunked
2 tbsp garlic paste/ 1 bulb of minced garlic
3 large carrots, peeled and cut into at least 1" chunks
1 bunch of celery, cut into 1" pieces, leaves included
Sea salt
1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into at least 1" chunks
1 large rutabaga, peeled and cut into 1" chunks
4-6 Yukon gold potatoes, cut into 1" chunks (do not peel)
4 Mexican squash, cut into 1" chunks
8 cups water

2 bay leaves
2 tbsp garlic powder
1.5 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp black pepper
More sea salt

OK, so first wash/peel/cut up all the veggies.

In a big ol' pot, heat the olive oil until shimmery when you swirl it. Brown the whole chicken quarters on both sides. Pull out and set the quarters on a pan off to the side.

Dump in the onions, carrots, and celery. Sprinkle 1 tbsp of the sea salt and stir to coat everything in the oil/chicken fat. Cook until the onions are translucent.

Dump in the sweet potato, rutabaga, and Yukon gold potatoes. Stir everything until it all looks shiny.

Stir in the squash.

Stir in the spices.

Remove the skin from the chicken quarters. Lay the chicken on top of the veggies.

Cook together for a couple minutes, then add in enough water to cover (about 8 cups usually)

Cover, but leave a little vent place, and let bubble for about 30 minutes, or until the meat slides off the bone.

Pull the chicken quarters onto a clean plate and pull the meat off the bones. Dump the meat back into the soup and stir together.

Done.

When its cool enough, pour leftovers into a container and stick in fridge. It will keep for a week, and the fat will also come to the top and harden, so you can easily skim it off with a spoon.

mockchoc

That made me hungry! Nothing nicer thanyour house smelling from soup made from scratch bubbling away.

pds06

Thanks for the recipe:drinker:

riginthering

You are most welcome. This is one of the few things I can actually give recipes for! I mostly do "trance cooking" where I come to and realize I've made something! ^.^