Best Dads Chicken Soup Recipes

DAD'S CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP

Steps:

• Cook one whole chicken. I use a blue roasting pan with lid, wash the chicken, place in pan, cover, into oven at 350° for an hour. Don't forget to flour the liver and cook it too, it's the best part. No need to add water or anything.
• When the chicken is done, set aside to cool.
• Cut up a pound of carrots and boil them for 10 minutes in a saucepan,
• then add six cut up stalks of celery to the boiling carrots and cook for 10 minutes longer.
• Drain the vegetables and rinse with cold water. Careful now, make sure the celery is a little crunchy.
• Start heating 8 cups of water in your large soup pot, when it boils add chicken bouillon in the proper amount and boil for a few minutes. Then set soup pot off heat.
• Add the cut up chicken meat that has been separated from the bones, and skin and other littly icky chicken parts.
• The chicken left over stuff then gets boiled for 10 minutes in a small saucepan with about 4 cups of water to leech out the true essence of chicken. That part isn't really necessary, but it tastes better when you do that step.
• The cooled carrots and celery are now added to the soup pot.
• Boil a 1 pound package of egg noodles, don't cook too long, al dente is the goal. Rinse in cold water and into the soup pot.
• By now the chicken parts are boiled, pour through a strainer and when the liquid cools some, the fat will rise to the top. Skim that off, and add that last 2 cups or so of liquid to the soup pot.
• That's about it. There's enough salt from the bouillon, I guess you could do herbs if you know about that, but I just let it cool a litle while and into the fridge. We microwave it to reheat, it's gone in 2 days. It feels healthy. Bon appetite.

DAD'S CHICKEN SOUP

Steps:

• Bring first 5 ingredients to boil in heavy large pot or Dutch oven over high heat. Mix in rice and thyme. Return soup to boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer soup uncovered until rice is tender, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes. Add chicken and simmer until heated through, thinning with additional broth if desired. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer soup to large bowl. Garnish with parsley and serve.

CHICKEN SOUP FROM SCRATCH

Steps:

• Place the chicken, celery, carrots, onions, parsnip (if using), parsley, peppercorns, bay leaves and salt in a large soup pot and cover with cold water by 1 inch.
• Bring to a boil over high heat, then immediately reduce the heat to very low. Adjust the heat until the soup is "smiling": barely moving on the surface, with an occasional bubble breaking through. Cook uncovered, until the chicken is very tender and falling off the bone, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
• When cool enough to handle, use tongs to transfer chicken from the pot to a container. Taste the broth and continue to simmer it until it is concentrated and tasty. Strain broth through a fine sieve (or a colander lined with cheesecloth) into a separate container. Discard all the solids from the strainer (or reserve the vegetables, chill and serve with vinaigrette, if you wish).
• Refrigerate chicken pieces and broth separately for at least 8 hours (or up to 3 days), until a thick layer of yellow fat has risen to the top of the broth.
• When ready to finish the soup, use your fingers to separate chicken breast meat from bones and skin. Discard bones and skin. Use two forks to pull the breast meat apart into soft chunks, or use a knife and cut into bite-size pieces. (Reserve dark meat for another use.)
• Skim chicken fat from top of broth and set aside. Place 3 tablespoons of the fat in a soup pot with a lid. Add leeks, stir to coat, and heat over medium heat until leeks begin to fry. Then reduce the heat to a gentle sizzle and cook, stirring often, until slightly softened, about 3 minutes.
• Add carrots, sprinkle with salt, stir, and cover the pot. Cook until vegetables are just tender, about 5 minutes more. (Keep in mind that vegetables will continue to cook in the soup.) Do not brown.
• Pour broth into pot with vegetables and heat to a simmer. Add noodles and simmer until heated through, soft and plumped with chicken broth. Add the breast meat, then taste broth and add salt and pepper to taste. For best flavor, soup should have some golden droplets of fat on top; if needed, add more chicken fat one teaspoon at a time.
• Serve immediately, in a tureen or from the pot, sprinkling each serving with herbs.

DAD'S DIVINE CHICKEN DIVAN

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Butter a 1 1/2-quart baking dish.
• Combine cream of chicken soup, mayonnaise, lemon juice, and curry powder in a small bowl.
• Arrange broccoli in a single layer in the buttered dish, reserving a few florets for the top.
• Cover with chicken strips.
• Pour soup mixture evenly over chicken and broccoli.
• Sprinkle with bread crumbs and melted butter, dot with a few broccoli florets, and sprinkle cheese over the top.
• Bake until heated through, about 25 minutes.
• Serve over rice.