A Big Pot of Classic 2-Day Lemon-Chicken Soup

Day 1:

1#  chicken thighs with some skin and bones

3    stalks of celery and dark green tops

2    scrubbed carrots

1    med. yellow onion

1t-1T  Rosemary Seasoning

~ Cut vegetables in chunks and add a little fresh ground pepper, Rosemary Seasoning, 3 bay leaves.  Simmer in 9 cups of water for an hour or two.  Cover and chill overnight.

Day 2:

~ Skim fat off the top of the soup ingredients in the pot.  Heat slightly then remove meat and vegetables.  The vegetables can be combined with cooked potatoes and baked in the oven for a twice-baked-vegetable-potato dish.  Remove any fat left on the thighs, remove meat from the bones or leave them as is.  Strain chicken broth left in the pot, into another container.

2#   boneless, skinless chicken breasts

3c    onions - chopped

3c    carrots - scrubbed and sliced

2c    celery and light green tops - sliced

1lg  lemon - zest and juice

1lg  bulb of garlic (10 cloves±) - peel and chop

~ Cut the chicken breast meat into bite size pieces.  Saute' chicken in the soup pot with about 1/2 a finely chopped onion in a little bacon drippings and butter.  Brown and deglaze several times with a little white wine until the chicken and pan are nicely browned.  Add trimmed thighs and strained chicken broth from Day 1, along with onion, carrots, celery and tops.  Simmer, covered an hour or so, then add the lemon zest, juice and garlic then simmer another 5-10 minutes.  Check flavor and add more Rosemary Seasoning, powdered chicken bullion, salt, pepper, etc.

Just before serving, add wide noodles - cooked separately - to the el dente stage - so they don't turn to mush if there are leftovers.  Serves a lot of hungry people!  Tastes great leftover - package some up and bring to a sick friend. . .Lin