26 July 2010

Chicken soup, the flu soother

Category: Chicken, Recipes  |  Post by: Andrea Wong
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Chicken soup, the flu soother :: So D'lish. New Zealand's food blog website.

The flu has struck the So D'lish household with Mr H coming down with a terrible flu, complete with a fever, aches and shivers. I tried to be the nuturing wife and went into soup-making mode. Minestrone, pumpkin soup and chicken soups were conjured up in quick succession.

There's not much you can do about a flu, except for lots of rest and fluids. With Mr H knocked for six and snuggled up in bed, all I could do is make some soup and leave it for him to drink when he's ready. I wanted him to model the photo for me, but he was too sick to do even that, so all I could manage was quick shot of the soup in my hands before it was whipped away to my patient!

I adjusted my usual chicken soup recipe a bit, to include more ginger and garlic which I hoped made him feel a bit better. This is a Chinese-style soup but it is really light, like a broth. It was quite nice with the kick of extra ginger, it would be a nice soup whether you're sick or not.


Chicken soup, the flu soother

Ingredients

2 chicken drumsticks, skin removed
1 carrot, unpeeled, roughly chopped
1 onion, roughly chopped
2 sticks celery, roughly chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
5cm ginger, sliced and bashed with the flat part of your knife
1.5 litres water
1 tbsp light soya sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
spring onions, sliced for garnish

Directions
  1. Put everything into a pot, except for the spring onions
  2. Bring to a boil slowly and simmer for at least an hour (alternatively, bring it to a slow boil and put it into your vacuum pot for 3-4 hours)
  3. Strain the soup, so that all the vegetables and chicken are removed from the soup
  4. Return the soup to the pot
  5. Add more soya sauce to taste, if necessary
  6. Take the chicken meat off its bones and put the meat back in the pot.
Serve with a bit of spring onion and a few drops of sesame oil to garnish.

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  • 28/07/2010 5:13 p.m.
    Jan

    Andrea...I have celery in my garden too but it is frozen solid. I usually add celery, but not in the frozen winter of the deep south. Thanks for the pasta idea, Cat.
  • 27/07/2010 1:43 p.m.
    Cat

    I do a very similar soup as well but I add a cup of soup mix(barley, lentils etc no flavourings though) and sometimes towards the end I break up some spaghetti pasta into it too. Very delish. Also I grate potato in to help thicken it and its an extra veg I have got into the kids without them knowing!
  • 26/07/2010 5:52 p.m.
    *** Andrea Wong ***

    @Jan - Yes I do that too! I'm always making chicken stock. In fact, I'm going to make another batch from the roast chicken that we had over the weekend. This batch, I'm going to roast the chicken bones for a bit to give them even more flavour. I'm going have to brave the rain to go and pick some celery and pull some carrots from the garden though :)

    Using chicken frames means that there isn't much meat for the soup, that's why I use a couple of drumsticks/legs for this soup. I love the meaty bits.
  • 26/07/2010 5:44 p.m.
    Jan

    The addition of Ginger sounds great. Must try it.
    Every time we have a roast chicken I boil up the remaining carcass for an hour, drain it then freeze the stock. I make an almost identical soup to yours, but use the frozen stock instead of the drumsticks and add grated carrot & onions as part of the soup. Chicken soup for the soul!