Good evening...from the farm.
My Dad would have been 82 today (Miss you Dad!). and he loved homemade chicken soup, This is a variation on the family version. The basic chicken soup recipe is in the archives. This is more a methodthan an actual recipe, since the quantites are general.
This time we started with two chichen leg quarters in a glass baking dish. We added about 1/2 inch or so of water, and set the pan in the oven to roast. The skin gets nicely crisp, and the water soaks up all the good juices. I prefer white meat chicken, so I usually add a chicken breast.
Once your chicken is gooked and browned, place it, the water with cooking juices, and some more water in your soup pot. For this amount of chicken, we needed about two quarts or so of water.
Next, add your seasonings. Select your favorites from Italian seasoning, parsley, qoultry seasoning, Montrial Steak seasoning, or a bay leaf.
Add two or three stalks of celery snapped into pieces. Be sure and use the green leafy tops. I sometimes cut them off a fresh stalk of celery, and freeze them, just to have them available for soup. The next item is the most important to give that Italian taste. Add one medium sized onion, peeled, into which you have stuck three whole cloves. No more, no less. Drop that into your soup pot.
Now, let the pot cook on low for as long as you like. Your whole house will smell like chicken soup!
Sometime around now take out the chicken, remove the skin and bone, and return the chicken pieces to the pot.
!/2 hour before you want to serve the soup, add your vegetables. I like either big chunks of carrot, or whole baby carrots. I don't like potatos in my chicken soup. Add them or not as you like. I do like to take out the old, limp celery, and cut a few more stalks into chhunks to cook and eat in the soup.
While the vegetables are cooking, bring a separate pot of water to boil. Cook a package on cheese or meat tortollini according to the directions.
Ladle some meat, vegetable chunks, and chicken broth into a bowl. Top with a handful of cooked tortollini. Eat with hunks of good Italian bread and butter.
As they say in the cooking world, yum-o!
Later.
