The last time I posted about a recipe that involved homemade bone broth we got in an epic Instagram war with vegans all over the world. That taught me at least two lessons:
- Vegans don't play around
- You can't please everyone and you have to show conviction in your values, even in the face of criticism
I like chicken soup. The Green Press lifestyle is absolutely plant based and we are on a path to eat less and less animal protein. However, a grandma level chicken soup recipe will be one of the last to go. To us, it represents:
- comfort and family;
- warmth in cold weather;
- the ultimate cold killing meal; and
- rich collagen for skin health
Different Strokes For Different Folks
There's also a tonne of different ways to make a chicken soup. My old recipe started with huge batches of homemade chicken stock / bone broth. You can find the recipe under chicken broth here.
That still works great and I feel efficient by using chicken frames as they're essentially scraps. However, instead of cooking a chicken broth for 4+ hours and then making a soup, I now reduce two jobs to one.
Chicken Soup & Bone Broth At The Same Time
I make one recipe in 60 minutes or less and it's soup + bone broth. Two birds, one stone. Or is that an accidental anti-vegan joke :)?
We use a cut of chicken that includes collagen rich bones and skin, and that makes our stock while also cooking the chicken we eat. You can do this by buying a whole chicken or using Maryland cuts. I like to use drumsticks, which is what we'll use in the recipe below.
You're sauteing and boiling the chicken with the bones, then removing them from the pot, picking off the meat and throwing the meat back in. That way you get all the flavour and collagen from the chicken, but none of the bones.
Let's get it happening.
1 Hour Chicken Soup With Built In Bone Broth
- Takes 60 minutes
- Makes eight servings
Ingredients
- Free range & organic chicken drumsticks - 2kg (4.2 pounds)
- Brown onions - 2
- Garlic - 6 bulbs
- Leek - 1
- Celery - 1 bunch
- Carrots - 5
- Parsley - 1 bunch
- Water - 6L
- Salt, pepper and olive oil
Method
- Finely dice your onion and leek, and rinse/dry your organic chicken
- In a 12L or bigger pot, turn the stove onto medium heat and add a splash of olive oil
- Add your onion, garlic and leeks, and keep the lid on so they sweeten
- After four minutes (don't forget to stir occasionally), add your chicken
- Season generously with salt and pepper and turn the pot onto high
- You don't need the lid on here, just expose each piece of chicken to the bottom of the pot (you might need tongs) so that your searing each side
- Once all of the chicken has been seared, cooked to medium rare (golden, not dark brown), then fill your pot up with water so that it's 3/4 filled (should be about 6 litres of water to all this chicken and veggies but I never measure)
- Put the lid on and bring to a boil
- While this is going on, rinse your carrots and celery
- Peel the carrots and then dice both vegetables
- Once the pot has boiled take the lid off, reduce to a simmer and add a big handful of parsley (stalks and all)
- You want this to simmer and reduce for at least 30 minutes so I normally add the celery and carrots 15 minutes after the pot boils
- 10 minutes before serving remove each piece of chicken and pick off the meat, putting it in a bowl
- Add your chicken meat back to the pot
- Serve hot and garnish with chopped parsley leaves (or spring onion if you have it)
image credit: What Great Grandma Ate