Ok, once more. Make your own chicken stock. I know it is a pain but, it makes your food so much yummier. As you are totally going to ignore that, I will tell you how to still make yummy soup.
You can get around using store bought stock with chicken fat. Come on channel your inner jewish grandmother and embrace some chicken fat. Every time I roast chicken, I drain off that golden liquid into a container I keep in the frig.
Ok, besides your chicken fat, you will also need – you are going to have to do a little work.
Chicken (I either use a whole chicken or chicken thighs. I buy pastured chicken and this helps keep costs down).
Olive oil or butter or chicken fat
Yellow onion - chopped
Whole carrots (big ones not those baby ones. WITH skin) – cut into half inch pieces
Celery – cut into half inch pieces
Sea salt
Pepper
Chili Powder
Garlic Powder
Summer Squash (ok, I like the starburst or yellow squash) cut into big bite sized chucks
Big Apple – cut into small pieces (all your veggies should be cut to about the same size but, the apple pieces should be half the size of the veggie pieces)
Chicken stock
Roast the chicken. As I am lazy (or we can say busy. Yeah, let’s stick with busy), I roast the chicken in the crockpot. I leave the skin on and just add salt and pepper. After the chicken is done roasting, you will need to pull all that tender chicken off the bones. Keep all the drippings. Seriously, if you skip that step, I can’t help you. You can roast the chicken at any time and then just throw it in the
In a pot, over medium heat, melt a nice spoonful of your chicken fat. Really? No chicken fat? You are not making this easy. Next time, ok? Heat the olive oil. Add onions, carrots and celery. Sautee about 5 minutes. Add chicken stock and spices. Once it is simmering, add the squash and apple. Add the drippings from when you roasted the chicken.
Simmer until carrots are done to your preference. Toss in the chicken that has been removed from the bone.
The more chicken fat you got into this soup, the better it will taste. What are you afraid of a little fat? Chicken fat has palmoitoleic acid, an antimicrobial monounsaturated fat which will boost your immunity – see chicken soup will keep you healthy. If you have questions about saturated fats, please read Real Food: what to eat and Why by Nina Planck. It is not the saturated fats that are killing us, it is the over-processing of fats to make them a better commercial product that is making them unhealthy.
Have a nice bowl of soup and call your mom and say something nice.
