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Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: 2ndTimer on October 01, 2014, 08:40:02 AM

Title: Best Soup Recipes using Chicken Stock
Post by: 2ndTimer on October 01, 2014, 08:40:02 AM
Do to just having learned to bone a chicken leg and thigh I can see that we are going to have a lot more chicken stock in the future.  Winter is coming and I adore soup.  Please share your best chicken broth based soups with me.
Title: Re: Best Soup Recipes using Chicken Stock
Post by: lizzzi on October 01, 2014, 09:09:04 AM
My soup never comes out the same way twice, but something vaguely like this: (For soup using two quarts chicken broth.) In two tablespoons oil, "sweat" chopped onion, two stalks chopped celery, two chopped carrots. (Let them sit in the covered pan on low heat until they soften and become fragrant.) Meanwhile, peel and dice 2 to 4 potatoes, and chop maybe one-eighth to one-quarter of a cabbage. Add the broth to the pot along with the potatoes and cabbage. Add a couple tablespoons of tomato paste, and one tablespoon of either parsley or oregano. I always use either Aldi's chicken broth or Better Than Bouillion, so don't need to add salt or pepper. If you're using a "home" broth, you may need to salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil and simmer for two hours. (A little less time will probably be OK, if you're in a hurry, but I'd say at least one and one-half hours--everything needs to cook down, and the flavors need to blend.)
Title: Re: Best Soup Recipes using Chicken Stock
Post by: MandalayVA on October 01, 2014, 09:24:31 AM
Yay, soup recipe thread!

Sausage Florentine Soup

4 cups chicken broth
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 small onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced (if you love garlic, add more!)
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon basil
2 bay leaves
Salt and pepper to taste
1 pound Italian sausage (can be sweet or hot, remove casings if it's links)
1 16-ounce bag frozen chopped spinach, thawed

Combine everything but sausage and spinach in a large pot.  Bring to a boil and simmer for at least 30 minutes (it can go longer; I've done this in a slow cooker).  Use a blender or immersion blender and puree until smooth.  While the base is simmering brown the sausage, breaking it up as large or small as you like, and drain the fat.  Stir the sausage and spinach into the base and heat through.

You can also use ground beef, chicken or turkey (or tofu crumbles if you must, ha ha), but add a half teaspoon of fennel seeds to get the sausage taste.  Pasta can be added to the soup to make it heartier; I've also done mushrooms.

Title: Re: Best Soup Recipes using Chicken Stock
Post by: cowboysgirlfriend on October 01, 2014, 09:48:47 AM
My soup is always different. Always an onion, and a potato or sweet potato (yam). Then whatever veg is mouldering in the fridge: spinach, broccoli, carrots, peppers, zucchini, cabbage, literally anything I have. If it's more root veg, I tend to add curry and warm wintery spices like turmeric and cumin. If it's more spring and summer veg, I usually go for loads of black pepper and some nutmeg.

I call it Doom Soup, because it is always amazing (occasionally it's a weird colour, but always delicious).
Title: Re: Best Soup Recipes using Chicken Stock
Post by: socaso on October 01, 2014, 10:47:02 AM
The soup I'm making tonight: 2 cans chickpeas, 1 can coconut milk, 1-2 cups chicken stock (depending on how you like the consistency), 1 tbsp garam masala, a good handful of cilantro, salt and pepper to taste. Blend all ingredients in a blender and heat on the stove. I use dried chickpeas in this but obviously I've cooked them prior so it goes together pretty fast. If you use dried chickpeas cook them til they get to a good soft consistency like canned have so they blend smoothly.
Title: Re: Best Soup Recipes using Chicken Stock
Post by: jbcivics on October 01, 2014, 11:32:32 AM
I love mexican-inspired chicken soup:

Simmer the chicken bones in salted water with some chopped up carrot and celery along with a halved onion (chop off top and cut in half through the root, then remove the skin so that the two onion halves stay intact and don't fall apart in the soup), a bay leaf and maybe a couple smashed garlic cloves. If you want more meat, I throw in a full thigh or two (since they are cheap). Skim the foam and let it go for 1-2 hours or however long you can afford. Remove the bones, mushy halved onion and thighs and set thighs aside. You shouldn't have to use any soup base or pre-made stock for this recipe.

Add a can of  black beans (low sodium or, even better, dried beans you've cooked yourself), a can of diced tomatoes and a chopped up chipotle pepper (the kind that come in cans in adobo sauce). Shred the thigh meat and add back. You can add anything else you like - corn, potato, other vegetables, leftover rice, whatever else is lying around. I also usually add some mexican oregano and a dash of garlic powder and cumin.

Simmer until whatever ingredients you've added are cooked through. Salt and pepper to taste.

Here's what really gives it flavor - serve with a bunch of fresh toppings. Chopped up fresh cilantro and red onion, crumbed cojita cheese (cheap at your local mexican market), a handful of crushed up tortilla chips, avocado, and some diced fresh jalapeno if you like it spicy. Finish with a squeeze of lime juice for some acid to balance everything out.

Another tip - if you get into oven roasting a whole chicken or thighs/legs for the family, the carcass/bones make an amazing starting point for soups.

Title: Re: Best Soup Recipes using Chicken Stock
Post by: lakemom on October 01, 2014, 11:50:21 AM
White Chicken Chile...I use one of the recipes on allrecipes.com. But basically cooked chicken, white beans (cannellini & garbanzo) onion, celery, jelapano and green peppers and stock.

Stock adds a lovely flavor to rice.
Title: Re: Best Soup Recipes using Chicken Stock
Post by: deborah on October 01, 2014, 03:24:07 PM
Red Soup

1 1/2 cups dried beans (leave to soak overnight)
1 litre (2 pints) chicken stock
1 1/2 litre (3 pints) tomato puree
3 carrots chopped
2 potatoes chopped
3 leeks (white part, cut into rings)
1/2 cauliflower (chopped into bite sized pieces)

Boil soaked beans in chicken stock for 1 hour. Add vegetables and tomato puree. Boil for another hour. Enough soup for a week.

Have with Parmesan cheese on top.

This is our standard dinner (with toast) every second week for Autumn, Winter and some of Spring. The tomato puree is made from our tomatoes in Autumn. We really enjoy it.
Title: Re: Best Soup Recipes using Chicken Stock
Post by: 2ndTimer on October 02, 2014, 04:35:48 PM
I am bumping this in hopes of harvesting more ideas