Food Blog

Cinnamon’s trilogy of articles on three meals on one chicken inspired me recently. I roast chickens fairly often, since they are usually cheap, and the chicken serves me a few meals, and some sandwiches. I thought I’d try Cinnamon’s advice and try for an extra meal and make soup. I’d love to try her risotto suggestion, but it’s just too much labor.

To make this soup, I set aside whatever meat was leftover from the bones, and roasted them and some leftover skin on broil for about 20 minutes (normally I’d go lower and slower for a full hour, but this was a rush job). I threw some portobellos in too. The roasted bones, an onion, a few cherry tomatoes, and some sage and tarragon (fresh, with the stems) went into a big pot with maybe 2 quarts of lightly salted water and simmered for 40 minutes or so. Also into the pot went a can of chicken stock (I told you this was a rush job).

My plan for this soup was not a thin, oily broth, but a creamy, stick-to-the-spoon type, with a bit more depth. To do this I just happened to have the perfect ingredient - half an acorn squash I had roasted with the chicken the other night. I pureed the squash meat with the roasted mushrooms, 3 tablespoons of cream and some fresh sage, setting it aside while I strained the bones and used veggies from the stock. The stock went back into the pot, with the leftover chicken meat and simmered to heat through and reduce a bit - maybe ten minutes. The soup was strained again - saving and setting aside the meat while the squash and mushroom puree, and about three tablespoons of butter was blended in to the soup with a stick blender. Some more fresh sage and tarragon, this time chopped, was added and the meat was dumped back in.

The high fat content and the squash gave this soup a great silkiness, and the huge chunks of chicken made it very satisfying.