The first chicken soup of the season

[ellen_datlow]

Today I'm making my first chicken soup of this winter. What I do is buy a roast chicken at the supermarket and eat the wings and some white meat while it's fresh.

Then the next day or so I throw the rest of the chicken whole (skin, fat, bones) into a large pot, put in salt, water, parsnips, and potatoes and put it on a very low heat, checking it regularly. Sometimes I'll throw in a few bay leaves, but it really doesn't need it. Later, I'll thrown in some carrots (they cook the quickest). When it's been over the flame for a few hours (replenishing any water that boils off) it sits and cools down until I can hand the chicken and take it all the way off the bones (I'll eat the marrow of the larger bones as I work)--throw out the skin and any fat or cartilage I found and pack it up into plastic containers to freeze. It will usually last for a few meals.

And I can work while the pot cooks.

Comments

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I had turkey soup once and it was great. But I don't cook turkey, so no leftovers for a soup...the one time I cooked the turkey for Thanksgiving when I had a big apt and lots of friends over for dinner, I almost dropped the turkey into the litter box, which was right by the oven :-) Whew, that was close.

[sclerotic-rings.livejournal.com]

In that case, if you're ever in the Dallas area, you'll have to let me fix the turkey. My tandoori turkey recipe is so popular that the Czarina's family expects it for every major holiday but Halloween, and friends try to find excuses for parties just so I'll do another one. Between the tandoori paste and a very slow roast in my smoker, the turkey ends up so moist and so tender that tasters can squeeze a piece of cold white meat in their fists and watch the juice run down their arms. That's my calling: I wasn't meant to be a writer. I was meant to be a turkey roaster!

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Yum! I'm sooo there.
I have had deep fried turkey (I think this has been discussed somewhere on an earlier post) at Kelly Link and Gavin Grant's wedding down in Asheville, NC several years ago. It was incredible. I love turkey in all its forms, so would be happy to taste your tandoori turkey (I love good tandoori chicken, but it's really hard to find in NYC--I mean GOOD tandoori chicken--it's usually too dry or too wet).