best chicken soup recipe

[patandchickens]

IMO the secret to good broth is a) use good chicken carcasses [home-raised, whether CornishX or dual purpose, make SO much better stock than supermarket chickens do, it's not even funny], and make sure that at least some if not all of the chicken carcass(es) have been roasted in the oven. This happens automatically if you are using the bones from a roast chicken, but if not, you can take the bones from a poached chicken and pop them in the oven for a little while, til they smell nice and roasty and are getting toasted in places, and then add them to your stock. The more bones per amount of water, the better.

Also, IME you will get a prettier and slightly tastier soup if pasta and rice are cooked separately rather than in the soup broth. I don't always do this on account of turrible laziness, but, you know, if you're serious about it

Quote:
You HAVE TO use a pressure canner. If you do, sure, go right ahead. You'd have to look up the time, but it is probably an hour or so.

Have fun,

Pat

 

[OPIE]

Thanks for that info Pat, I do have a pressure cooker, but I have never used one and am a little intimidated by it. I remember my mother using one all the time, but I dont realy know the first thing about using one.LOL:/

 

[Sugar Sand Farm]

Opie make sure its a pressure canner not a pressure cooker there is a diffference as I found out. I had to go purchase a pressure canner. I have three pressure cookers as well lol

 

[schmije]

I have recently discovered crock pot chicken which literally fell off the bone when I lifted it out of the pot. It was excellent, and super easy. My favorite chicken soup recipe, however, uses the pressure cooker. My family is just DH and me, so I make a small recipe - which leaves us leftovers for several lunches. It could easily be doubled if you have a big enough pressure cooker, and the proportion of chicken to dumplins can be adjusted if you like to have more of one or the other. We like lots of dumplins, and usually only include 1 chicken breast per batch.

Chicken & Dumplins

Broth:
2 cans chicken broth
2 cans water (use chicken broth cans as a measure)
2 chicken breasts
1 tsp pepper

Put all ingredients into pressure cooker. Bring to pressure, then reduce heat to medium-low & cook for 15 min. Remove from heat and let pressure drop.

Dumplins:
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
5 tbsp butter or margarine
3/4 c milk
extra flour for rolling out

Sift together flour, baking powder & salt. Cut in butter or margarine. Add milk and mix until a dough forms. Flour rolling surface generously, and roll out dough to approximately 1/8" thick. Cut into rectangles about 1" x 1.5" with a pizza cutter or knife.

Cooking Dumplins:
1 stick butter or margarine
1 - 2 cups fresh or frozen veggies (optional)

Remove chicken from broth and pull apart with two forks. Add stick of butter or margarine to broth and bring to a boil. Split dumplins into four or five batches and drop one batch at a time into broth. Cook each batch approximately 2 min and remove from pot. You may have to experiment with the time to get the consistency that you like. We put the dumplins onto a plate in a single layer to keep them from sticking. If the broth gets too low or thick, add some water to it.

If you are using veggies, put them into the broth and cook until tender. Once everything is cooked, you can mix some flour into some cold milk, then pour it in to thicken the broth. We like our broth on the thin side. Once your broth is the way you like it, throw the chicken and dumplins back in. Enjoy!

Note: This dumplin recipe makes more 'noodle-like' dumplins. If you like yours more 'poofy', add more baking powder. 4 tsp will give lots of 'poof' and will require extra cooking time.

 

[BettyR]

When I make fried chicken I pressure cook my chicken pieces in 1-1/2 cups of water along with various herbs and spices then I put the chicken pieces in the frig to chill (the secret to good fried chicken) and the resulting broth is out of this world for making soup.

 

[momofdrew]

The tastiest broth comes from an oven roasted bird ...then put into pot [ I USE MY CANNING POT]with lots and lots of water and celery onion and carrot bay leaf parsley salt and pepper simmer till meat falls off bones...strain and debone throw out these veggies skin and bones and make soup with 1/2 the broth in pot and meat add new veggies to taste...1/4 cup barley chopped parsley s & p....use the second 1/2 of the broth to cook noodles or rice combine the 2 and there should be enough broth to make it soupy

 

[Chicabee19]

Thanks for that info Pat, I do have a pressure cooker, but I have never used one and am a little intimidated by it. I remember my mother using one all the time, but I dont realy know the first thing about using one.LOL

Why not freeze it instead?​

 

[OPIE]

Can I freeze it? Like in ziplock freezer bags or something?

 

[PurpleChicken]

Freezing is fine. I freeze mine because I don't have a canner or know
how to do it yet.

The big advantage to canning is it doesn't take up freezer space.