Granny’s cookbook.

Left over chicken from a rotisserie store bought one or a home cooked one or even from a bag of frozen chicken strips can be very useful, it might not be enough for a whole meal by itself, but with a few little extra things thrown in it can be a delicious home cooked soup, full of goodness and comfort all in one bowl.

If you wanted to you could add some pasta to stretch it further, if it’s spaghetti, break it up, if not, add it in the half way cooked mark, so it all comes together at the same time and is ready together.

I do thicken mine with a little corn starch mixed with water, but that’s down to personal taste I feel. If you wanted to there’s nothing stopping you from adding corn, or mixed vegetables, bacon, or sausage, it’s up to you. Today I’m making it as I said, the ordinary way, going to serve it up with home made bread.

Left over chicken shredded and bones removed

Half a cup of rice

1 large potato per person

1-2 large carrots per person

3 sticks of celery

Stock powder or cubes or liquid stock, to taste, approx. 1 tablespoon. Approx. 4 pints of water

Salt and pepper to taste

Corn starch to thicken the soup Method

Wash the vegetables, peel chop the carrots and potatoes. Place into a large saucepan.

Next, chop the celery. Add this to the saucepan. Add the stock and or the stock cubes or bouillon and the water, stir to combine. Season with the salt and pepper.

Set the saucepan and contents to cook on a medium heat until the carrots are soft. When poked with a fork. If everything is soft and fully cooked, add the chicken and stir that in. I only add the chicken at the last because it goes to threads if added too soon, you end up it’s a soup full of chicken strings, it still tastes good but is a little difficult to eat, especially if the chicken was in long pieces and not cut into cubes.

I heat the soup through again to make sure the chicken is hot then I add the corn starch in water and stir the soup to evenly distribute it and to thicken it evenly. Sometimes at the end of cooking I will tweak the flavour a little by adding some garlic powder, onion powder or more salt. I feel there’s nothing nicer than homemade soup, served with fresh bread, especially on these cold winter nights we’ve been having. Enjoy.