Curry (Rotisserie) Chicken Soup

This chicken recipe brought to you, courtesy of Olympia Local Foods who generously supplied me with a kosher, pastured, organic rotisserie chicken from Tachira Farms, in Olympia, Washington.  If you live in the South Puget Sound area, please support our local farms by shopping at Olympia Local Foods store.

My most recent recipe was for two side dishes to complement the rotisserie chicken.  I was also excited to run my first ever contest for a free rotisserie chicken and a $10 gift card to their store.  You can still enter this contest, by following the directions from that last blog post, up until October 23, 2012.  Local entries only.

Today I'm going to show you how I used up the left over chicken to concoct a spicy, hot, healthy and flavorful  curry soup from scratch. And when I say 'From Scratch' here, I mean FROM SCRATCH.  We're even going to make our own broth... no bouillon required.



The first order of business it to get out a plate and pick off all the remnant chunks of meat from every side of your roasted/ rotisserie whole chicken.  This meat will be used in the soup, so every useable little piece should go on the plate. (You can finely chop the meat up on a cutting board to keep it bite-sized.)

Here is a picture of the meat I picked off from the chicken, and you can see the bones, skin and scraps on the cutting board behind the plate.  Cover with plastic wrap or put in a covered storage container in the refrigerator until your broth is done simmering.






Then take your carcass, skin, wings, drumsticks, and all, and put it in a big stock pot, and put enough water in to cover it just so.  Avoid adding additional water at this stage, as too much water will dilute the flavors.

Add at least 2 tablespoons of salt to this, and a couple of bay leaves.  You could also add a peeled whole carrot and a stalk of celery and some peppercorns at this stage, but that's optional.  I actually just wanted the pure chicken broth (and added my celery, and spices later) so it is up to you if you want to do any additional doctoring at this stage.

Put the pot on a medium high for a few minutes just to get the water heated up, and then reduce it to the lowest possible simmer that you can keep it at so it will continue to bubble and boil, with a lid on, without boiling over.  Stir once in a while, but otherwise, let this simmer for at least an hour or more until the broth has reduced a little bit, and the bones fall apart. 

The broth will take on a rich yellow color, and smell amazing, and when you are happy with that (feel free to taste it now and then with a clean spoon) it is time to strain the broth into another pot, and discard the solids and other bits.

 

Now it's time to really make some soup!

INGREDIENTS:

1 large onion

3 stalks of celery

1-2 cloves of minced garlic

1-2 carrots (optional-- I had none so I didn't use them)

1 bell pepper, preferably red
1/2 head of cabbage

4-6 stalks of green onions 

1 or 2 bay leaves

Indian Curry powder (to taste, starting with at least 1 tbsp for the whole pot of soup)

Salt to taste (if additional salt is needed)

1 tbsp coconut oil or other vegetable oil

Chop onion, celery (and carrots if using) and place in the bottom of a the large soup pot that you previously used for cooking down your broth (having transferred your finished broth to another pot or bowl in the meantime.)  Use coconut oil or other vegetable oil and saute the vegetables until nearly soft.  Pour on the broth that you made, and keep heat at a low simmer.

 
Meanwhile chop up red bell peppers and green onions, and 'shred' the cabbage with a knife into thin strips.  Set aside for the time being.

Add chicken meat,  curry seasonings, and a bay leaf or two into the broth, and simmer for a half hour or so until chicken starts to shred a bit in the broth.   Finally add in cabbage, and bell peppers and green onions.  Make sure to taste the broth and add more curry to your liking.  Stir and allow flavors to meld on low heat and serve up when cabbage is tender.