Chicken soup help

calico2222

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On wednesday, I cooked off 2 chickens in the rotisserie (?), and I promised my husband I would make a big pot of chicken vegetable soup over the weekend. Problem with that is....I've never made it before in my life! I know it can't be that hard. My MIL makes great vegetable soup, but I really don't want to admit to her that I'm clueless in that area, (it's a pride thing, you know
) so I figured I'd show my ignorance here instead. So, do you use chicken broth in a can, chicken boullion or both? How much? Is there an order to putting the ingredients in, or do you just dump everything in the pot at once and let it cook? I'm figuring I'll use onions, carrots, potatoes, green beans, celery, tomatoes and cabbage, all fresh. Am I missing something? Any help would be appriciated.

And, don't even show me a receipe...I can't follow them to save my life. I'm more of a "pinch of this, dash of that" girl
. Yes, I do a lot of taste testing.
 

menagerie mama

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When I make my chicken soup, I actually boil the chicken (legs and thighs) in the water first instead of adding a lot of broth or boullion to the water, I think it gives it more flavor from the natural juices and fat and doesn't add as much sodium. But I do use a few tablespoons of chicken stock. As far as how it will taste with those ingredients or how to cook the rest of the soup, I don't use cabbage, beans, potatoes or tomatoes so I couldn't say how that would be. I usually put noodles and dumplings in mine.
Good luck, sorry I couldn't be much help!
 

liza24

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Originally Posted by menagerie mama

When I make my chicken soup, I actually boil the chicken (legs and thighs) in the water first instead of adding a lot of broth or boullion to the water, I think it gives it more flavor from the natural juices and fat and doesn't add as much sodium. But I do use a few tablespoons of chicken stock. As far as how it will taste with those ingredients or how to cook the rest of the soup, I don't use cabbage, beans, potatoes or tomatoes so I couldn't say how that would be. I usually put noodles and dumplings in mine.
Good luck, sorry I couldn't be much help!
i make mine about the same way, but use a cup or so of broth. i also potatoe sliced small.
 

pookieboy

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Originally Posted by calico2222

On wednesday, I cooked off 2 chickens in the rotisserie (?), and I promised my husband I would make a big pot of chicken vegetable soup over the weekend. Problem with that is....I've never made it before in my life! I know it can't be that hard. My MIL makes great vegetable soup, but I really don't want to admit to her that I'm clueless in that area, (it's a pride thing, you know
) so I figured I'd show my ignorance here instead. So, do you use chicken broth in a can, chicken boullion or both? How much? Is there an order to putting the ingredients in, or do you just dump everything in the pot at once and let it cook? I'm figuring I'll use onions, carrots, potatoes, green beans, celery, tomatoes and cabbage, all fresh. Am I missing something? Any help would be appriciated.

And, don't even show me a receipe...I can't follow them to save my life. I'm more of a "pinch of this, dash of that" girl
. Yes, I do a lot of taste testing.
You got it right calico, just buy the extra large cans of chicken broth (for as much soup as you want), add your chosen vegetables (I add corn and lima beans to mine plus a very small can of tomato sauce for color and extra flavor) and add the meat from those chickens you made and whala!, you got chicken vegetable soup! Yours sounds yummy!
 

gailc

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Don't add any additional salt as the chicken broth is plenty salty. I would shred the meat and add to broth. The veggies I would add in the order of cooking time-ie potatoes will have to cook longer than tomatoes. I would add some herb such as an Italian herb blend or basil/rosemary (not much), majoram.
Are you cooking any noodles or how about adding some barley-you can buy the quick cooking kind. Or rice would work as well.
I hope it tirns out well.
 

natalie_ca

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It's really easy actually.

Just take a big pot, add in the chicken carcasses (I also add in some extra chicken like a regular size package of thighs or wings or drumsticks for extra flavour and the meat), add lots of water and a couple of Bay Leaves. Bring to a boil and then simmer for a couple of hours.

Scoop out the bones and meat and let them cool. Once cool go through them with your hands picking the meat out and throwing out the bones. Cut any large chunks of meat into bite sized pieces.

I like low fat stuff so I tend to get rid of all of the fat, and for me it's easier to do the broth one day and put the liquid in the fridge over night so that I can just scoop off the solid fat the next day and then proceed to make the soup. You don't have to do that though.

Once you have the meat off of the bones, add it back to the liquid. Add in some veggies (carrots, onions, celery, potatoes. I like also to add some parsnips). Cut them into bite sized pieces.

Add in a 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes....or 2 cans if you want to.

Add some salt and pepper, I also add in some chicken stock powder for extra flavour. I also like to add in a bit of dried thyme and a bit of curry powder (maybe 1 teaspoon each).

Bring back to a boil. Simmer until veggies are crisp tender. You don't want them to be mushed up.

If you plan on freezing some of the soup, cook only until the veggies are slightly tender. Freeze what you want, and cook the remaning soup until the veggies are tender but not mushy.

When you freeze soups or stews you have to do it when the veggies aren't completely cooked because freezing will affect the texture and "cook" them further, so if they are fully cooked when you freeze them, they will be mush when thawed and reheated.
 
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