Chicken! Lotsa Chicken - and - Lemon-Rice Chicken Soup

Today my plan was to clean the 'fridge, and make a nice pot of chicken soup.

I recently found some gorgeous drumsticks.  I put them on paper towels to dry, thinking they'd freeze separately.

So today, I was going to take out 5 or 6 for the recipe brewing in my head.  Well, I was wrong.  All 14 or 16 of them froze in this giant LUMP! 😕 Not separable, no matter how I tried.

Well. . .now what?  They're in my big 8-quart pot, slowly steaming-simmering.  Once I can break them apart with a wooden spoon, I'll cover and turn off the heat to let them finish thawing slowly for an hour. 

The Chicken Stock Pot

My lunch on "Making Stock Day"

Next, I'll make a big, slow, pot of chicken stock by adding vegetables, leaving the skin on and boiling on low for an hour or so.  See my recipe idea below.  Then I'll remove all the solids, give the dogs ONLY the rinsed celery and carrots chopped up in their food.  Set aside some of the cooked ingredients for yourself too 😋 

Next, I'll cover the pot and put it in the snowbank on my deck until the fat rises, solidifies, and I can skim it all off.  Then it will be strained several times and. . .it's Chicken Stock!  Once cooked and cool, I'll use 6 for this soup and zip-lock the rest in two bags and freeze to use in other recipes.

Chicken Stock:

Chicken Stock Ingredients

4-5# of chicken legs

½ med. yellow onion

1 head of garlic cloves

3 stalks of celery

celery leaves

2-3 big carrots

½T Thai seasoning

½T powdered rosemary

2T Heinz Salad Vinegar

juice and zest of 1 lemon

½T good black peppercorns

~ Tellicherrys are my favorite

*fresh cold water to cover everything

To the chicken in the pot add all the ingredients above.  First peel off most of the garlic 'paper', scrub the bulb then carefully slice it horizontally into 2 equal halves.  Peel and quarter the onion half, chop the celery into 2-3" long chunks and do the same with the scrubbed, but not peeled carrots.  Add the rest, stir together gently, cover and simmer at a low bubble, for a total of 45-60 minutes cooking time, stirring occasional. (*I added extra water since I'm going to make more than just for the soup.  I'd like an extra quart, to have for several days as a 8oz. daily 'tonic'.  This is very similar to really healthy homemade bone broth.)  Check the thickest part of a chicken leg for doneness.  If a fork inserted comes out very easily, it's done.  If not, put it back for another 15 minutes, then check again.

When done, transfer all of the chicken legs to a colander put on top of the open pot to drain.  After 5 minutes, the colander then put it on crumpled paper towels to finish draining and cool.  Put the cooked drumsticks whole, or just the skinned-boned chicken meat, in desired amounts, into heavy zip-top bags.  Press out the air, seal well and freeze.  It's now ready for chicken salad, casseroles, Chicken Cacciatore, or even more soup, whenever you need it.  Just thaw the sealed bag in a pan of warm water.

Lemon-Rice Chicken Soup:

1 med. onion

2 stalks celery

3 big carrots

4c chopped kale

2T Rosemary EVOO

the soft garlic paste

6c +/- strained chicken stock

Cooked chicken from 6 legs

1c 15-20 minute Saffron Jasmine Rice

Simmer-saute the vegetables together until they release their scent and become a little translucent.  Squeeze the garlic out of the shells.  Use it all or just a little.*  Put the garlic and stock in the pot now also, stir, cover and simmer on low heat 15 minutes.  Add the skinned, boned chicken and rice, stir, cover and cook another 15-20 minutes until the rice is the way you like.  Mmm, have I mentioned how much I love soup!? . . .Lin

*If you love Bruschetta, you might like the extra garlic mixed with Basil Pesto, spread on crispy Italian bread, topped with fresh, chopped tomatoes and Parmesan.