Chicken soup

Serves:

Ingredients

For the stock

• 1 free-range chicken
• 2 onions, peeled and quartered
• 2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
• 2 celery stalks, roughly chopped
• 1 tbsp black peppercorns
• 2 bay leaves
• 4 sprigs lemon thyme
• 3L (12 cups) cold water

For the soup

• 1.5L (6 cups) chicken stock
• 1 leek, trimmed, quartered, thinly sliced
• 6 sticks celery, trimmed and thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup per person angel-hair pasta (broken into small pieces)
• 2 cups shredded chicken
• Mint and parsley, finely chopped, to serve

Method

To make the stock

Rinse and pat the chicken dry. Place in a large stockpot and add remaining ingredients. Bring to a gentle simmer and let bubble away for 2 hours. Check every now and then that chicken isn’t sticking to the bottom of the pan as it could burn. Remove chicken from stock and place on plate. Allow to cool a little before shredding chicken, store in an airtight container in the fridge until needed.

To make the soup

Bring about half of the stock to a rolling boil (work on 1 cup per person) Add the leeks and celery and cook at a simmer for about 10 minutes. Add the noodles and shredded chicken and cook for another 6 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve in warm bowls topped with herbs.

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Serving Suggestions

Note

• Throw in some chilli, fish sauce, ginger, lime and coriander for a Thai-style version of this soup.
• Serve with loads of shaved parmesan and a dollop of pesto for a bit of an Italian twist.
• This recipe was created by Sophie Hansen for Kidspot. New Zealand’s best recipe finder.  You can follow Sophie on Local is Lovely, Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest.