Chicken soup
For the chilly months, or for those times when you’re not feeling 100%, homemade chicken soup is one of those recipes that everyone should have up their sleeve. This one stems from my Nonna Curcio, and mum, with a twist of chef, Naz Cugliari’s Calabrian family roots.
Ingredients
6 drumsticks (keep skin on)
2 large carrots, peels and cut into large pieces
2 large stalks of celery, cut into large piece
4-5 cloves of garlic, whole
1 med-large onion, outer lay peeled off
1 medium-large tomato, skin on and whole
Half – one cup pastina (risoni pasta)
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to season
Fresh parsley
Method
Heat some olive oil in the large pot where you’ll cook the soup.
Fry the chicken and garlic cloves until brown
Season the chicken and garlic with salt, generously (though it feels like a lot of salt, there’ll be a lot of water, too).
Add some pepper and all of the vegetables into the pot
Pour about 1-1.5 lt water into the pot. You want all of the vegetables well covered by the water (and then some).
Stir all of the ingredients, especially the chicken bits at the bottom of the pot. The caramelised flavours will seep through the chicken stock.
Bring the pot to the boil, and then keep it on the heat simmering away for about 1 hr/ 1hr 15 minutes.
While the simmering takes place, it’s important to skim the scum! (As a frothy, foamy layer forms across the top of the water, skim this out).
After 30 minutes, take out the carrots from the broth so they don’t get too soft and mushy (overcooked!). Dice these and set aside.
After an hour, take out the chicken.
Then strain the vegetables out of the broth (strain the liquid into another big bowl so you can then place the broth back into the pot).
Place the pastina into the broth and after a few minutes add diced carrot.
Remove the skin from chicken and strip the chicken meat away from the bone and chop into chunky pieces. Place the chicken back into the stock.
Add some fresh chopped parsley and mix through.
Serve with a generous serve of both the solid ingredients and the broth.
Enjoy!
