วันเสาร์ที่ 1 พฤษภาคม พ.ศ. 2553

Chicken Soup From Scratch, and You Don't Cook

This may as well be instant soup, so little work is involved, but it is 'from scratch.'

Take a FROZEN WHOLE CHICKEN, cut off its shrink wrap packaging with a box cutter. Put it in a large pot of UNHEATED WATER. Turn on high heat (but only medium if you are using a nonstick pot), turn heat down when it reaches a boil. You want some movement to the water, but the surface to be flat.

Go do something else. Peek in to see how frozen it still is.

Come back and attack chicken with kitchen shears. It can still be somewhat frozen when you do this. Be careful, now. Cut it at least in quarters--the more 'parts' the better.

Let it develop a broth with color.

Now do these 4 things one after the other in any order:

(1) Cut a HEAD OF JUMBO GARLIC's base end off, throw the thing in the pot just as it is. When all is done, throw it in the trash. Cut the remainder of the garlic in half the round way, which is making another cut like you just did. Now the peeling has fallen away. Put the garlic pieces in the pot; you don't need to cut it any more than that.

(2) Put in ONE CUPFUL OF DRIED BARLEY. Up to two cups if you like barley a lot.

(3 ) Also put in about HALF A BUNCH OF CELERY, cut up. Size of cut does not matter, medium is advisable.

(4) These are optional. If you have some 'CHICKEN BASE' in the refrigerator, you can put around 4 tablespoons in; or 8 chicken bouillon cubes if you think that much salt is desirable. You can also put around 4 tablespoons of CURRY POWDER in. Curry goes with the chicken flavor and it is very healthful.

Now put this to simmer (very little movement in the broth) and go do something else. If you are hungry, you can have some before it is thoroughly done, once the broth is cooked (color is dark and you are sure no blood is there). You can cook this for a longer time before it is 'overcooked.' Why? Because celery and barley can both take a lot of cooking. That makes this recipe very flexible and very easy. You can also eat some and put more water in: It is that rich, especially if you used chicken base.

This is a good recipe if you are catching a cold or flu, or someone else in the house is.

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