Whole Chicken Soup

Ingredients

• Leftover RSPCA Assured chicken carcass
• 2 large carrots
• 1 leek
• 2 celery sticks
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 tin of red lentils
• Bay leaf
• 1 tsp of peppercorns
• Parsley
• Thyme
• Salt and pepper for seasoning

Tips

• Add torn parsley to serve and accompany with crusty bread and butter.
• Try swapping out the red lentils for noodles, diced potatoes or pre-cooked pearl barley.

Cooking Method

Step 1: Remove excess meat from the carcass and set aside. You may need to supplement the leftovers with extra RSPCA Assured chicken breasts.

Step 2: Chop carrots, leek, celery and onion into small cubes, and sweat in a frying pan until the onion starts to turn golden. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Step 3: Chop up the carcass using kitchen shears or a sharp knife so that all the pieces can be laid mostly flat in a pan. 

Step 4: Brown the carcass pieces in a frying pan over a medium heat with a little oil.

Step 5: Add the pieces along with the herbs, seasoning and whole garlic cloves to a large pan, topped up with water, and simmer on a low heat for 60 minutes, making sure that it doesn’t come to a boil. Keep an eye on the pan and remove any excess fat that forms on the surface of the broth.

Step 6: While simmering, prepare the chicken. Brown the chicken in a frying pan and then add a little water until it is cooked through. 

Step 7: Once the broth has a nice chickeny flavour (about 60 minutes), remove the carcass pieces and use a fine strainer to remove any remaining bone fragments, peppercorns and bay leaves.

Step 8: Add the vegetables and chicken to the broth, along with the red lentils, and simmer for a further 20 minutes.

Step 7: Season to taste and stir everything together, making sure that everything is cooked through.