I was taught "your eyes tell you something tastes good before your mouth does" (object lesson to creative and attractive presentation).
But if your eyes tell you something's not 100% right listen up - use your skills and YOUR INSTINCTS.
Right outta the gate this dish was a stretch, an older rooster is a tough hunk of meat, probably better to braise it (dust in flour and brown the pieces, then remove from pot add a bunch of vegetables and sauté them, then add the rooster pieces back, add some canned stock and some red wine, cover and slow simmer (with some fresh rosemary) for a couple hours until the sauce thickens. This would be considered Coq au Vin (or rooster in red wine)...
My mom had a lot of old pots and pans and she gave away (to me) all the good ones, old Revere Ware and cast iron pans, and kept some junky old thin aluminum pots (her reason for keeping them was they were lighter and easier for her to pick up). I saw her make some soup once in one of those pots and right away the pot itself was reacting with the stuff she was cooking, aluminum is some nasty stuff... I got her some better pans right away. So also think about what kind of pan this got cooked in.
I think you got the right idea, just use a fresh chicken from the store, simmer it, add your veggies and a little white wine for flavor, maybe make a herb bouquet of some fresh parsley tie in some rosemary and a little fresh thyme with string and pop that in the pan it will greatly enhance what you make - also the parsley will help break up that scum you saw forming - that is albumen or the impurities from the chicken skin and anything else you had in the pot, once your stock comes to a boil turn down to a low simmer, SKIM THE SKUM off the top and your soup will be clearer which is just more attractive. I'll see if I can find my chicken n dumplings recipe. You're on the right track, if you saw how many times I had disasters and things I eventually tossed when I was cooking you'd laugh yourself silly, and I'm supposed to know what I am doing. LOL
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/585750/mikes-old-fashioned-chicken-vegetable-dumpling-soup
But if your eyes tell you something's not 100% right listen up - use your skills and YOUR INSTINCTS.
Right outta the gate this dish was a stretch, an older rooster is a tough hunk of meat, probably better to braise it (dust in flour and brown the pieces, then remove from pot add a bunch of vegetables and sauté them, then add the rooster pieces back, add some canned stock and some red wine, cover and slow simmer (with some fresh rosemary) for a couple hours until the sauce thickens. This would be considered Coq au Vin (or rooster in red wine)...
My mom had a lot of old pots and pans and she gave away (to me) all the good ones, old Revere Ware and cast iron pans, and kept some junky old thin aluminum pots (her reason for keeping them was they were lighter and easier for her to pick up). I saw her make some soup once in one of those pots and right away the pot itself was reacting with the stuff she was cooking, aluminum is some nasty stuff... I got her some better pans right away. So also think about what kind of pan this got cooked in.
I think you got the right idea, just use a fresh chicken from the store, simmer it, add your veggies and a little white wine for flavor, maybe make a herb bouquet of some fresh parsley tie in some rosemary and a little fresh thyme with string and pop that in the pan it will greatly enhance what you make - also the parsley will help break up that scum you saw forming - that is albumen or the impurities from the chicken skin and anything else you had in the pot, once your stock comes to a boil turn down to a low simmer, SKIM THE SKUM off the top and your soup will be clearer which is just more attractive. I'll see if I can find my chicken n dumplings recipe. You're on the right track, if you saw how many times I had disasters and things I eventually tossed when I was cooking you'd laugh yourself silly, and I'm supposed to know what I am doing. LOL
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/585750/mikes-old-fashioned-chicken-vegetable-dumpling-soup
yeah, I screwed up from the start! From killing the chicken to cooking it. I think I figured out why it tasted like feathers too. I boiled the water I dipped the bird in instead of just using hot water! You don't even want to know how cutting the carcass went! Once the poor animal was dead after a terribly botched kill job though I was just determined not to let him go to waste! I managed to choke down a very small bowl of wet feather flavored chicken and dumplings and the rest of the pot went out the door!
I sure hope so! I wasn't looking forward to having to kill a chicken at any point, but after that, I am sure not looking forward to it now! For a minute after the killing and again after that bowl of dumplings lol... I wanted to throw in the towel right then and there, but I realized we did learn some things without a doubt so those mistakes won't be there next time so it surely can't go worse or even exactly the same as it did this first time, and I have read enough to realize we are not the first people to be terrible at it starting out! We will make a go at it again this fall!
