Chikin Biznis: Stock and soup

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

Cooking Time: 3 hours

Yield: 4

Jointing a chicken in order to squeeze three meals out of it means that one of those meals is going to be a soup. To make soup, you need to make stock, and a small portion of that stock will also be needed for the casserole or curry that will constitute one of the other two meals.

If you’ve followed me down the “four into one makes three” road thus far, you’ll have jointed a chicken by now. The next step is to make the stock, followed by the soup. If you do not want to have the soup as a meal at the time of making it, it does freeze particularly well, as does the stock.

The protein ingredients you’ll use are the chicken carcass, neck and wing tips. You may add the liver, heart and gizzard if you so choose, but I tend not to use them, as I find the resulting stock too brown and perhaps even slightly bitter. What Eppie does, is simmer them in a small saucepan with a cup of rice, a grated carrot and a crushed garlic clove which is turned into a number of “puppy meal supplements” for daughter Alex’s beloved Jack Russell, Lola. A third of a cup with Lola’s usual eye-wateringly expensive “scientifically formulated” dog cubes makes for a much enjoyed meal. In this fashion, virtually every scrap of the chicken is used.

The stock flavourants you might need: Carrot, pearl onions, bay leaves, peppercorns, thyme, a mace blade and celery

Stock flavourants are, of course, a matter of personal choice, but there are a number of “musts”. Add to or take away from my recipe as you see fit, but do consider carefully the impact in each instance, on the final flavour outcome.

The style of soup you choose to make is also a matter of personal preference. Some people, like dear wife, Eppie, prefer a broth type soup with chunky bits of chicken and veg in it. Daughter Alex and I, on the other hand, prefer a creamy soup, which requires judicious application of the stab blender. Fortunately, both are possible, in that you can dish up for the broth adherents, before blitzing for the creamers!