Post by chief_cook2 on Nov 8, 2002 13:41:11 GMT -6
1 large Whole fryer
1/2 c Diced celery
4 ea Cloves minced garlic
3 ea Bay leaves
4 ea Qts water
2 tb Butter
1 c Sliced mushrooms
1/4 c Cream sherry
Green onions for garnish
1 c Diced onions
1/2 c Minced parsley
1 c Chopped carrots
1 ts Poultry seasoning
12 oz Broad egg noodles
1 c Sliced onion rings
1 c Diced carrots
Salt and pepper to taste
First, take the chicken and wash it thoroughly - both inside and out! Remove giblets, scrub the internal cavity under cold running water, and scrape away anything that doesn't look edible. (But DO NOT remove the chicken skin or any of the fat! You need skin to make rich stock.) Take crock pot and place the chicken and giblets into it. Drop in diced onions, 1/2 cup chopped carrots and bay leaves, poultry seasoning and
*2* quarts of water. Then, with a spoon, evenly distribute the seasoning mixture around chicken, turn crock pot to high, cook for at least six hours (or better still, OVERNIGHT). Remember, the longer you cook, the richer the base stock and then more tender the chicken. (I cooked it overnight) While the chicken is slow-cooking, it's a good time to prepare your
noodles. Go ahead and boil them according to package directions... but DO NOT COOK THEM UNTIL DONE! Keep in mind that you're going to drop them into a soup, so you want them el dente (firm), otherwise they'll turn to pure mush by the time you eat them. Furthermore, you want a small
percent of the starch in the noodles to cook into the soup to thicken it slightly - if you cook the noodles all the way, the soup's consistency will be flat and thin. After the noodles are cooked, butter them slightly and set aside. When the chicken is tender, take a set of tongs or a strainer spoon,
remove it from the crock pot (it may tend to fall apart, but that's okay), set it on a platter to cool. At this point, strain out all the seasoning vegetables from the stock, place stock into a metal bowl,place the bowl into the refrigerator or freezer until the chicken fat congeals (which should take about 1 hour). Meanwhile, pick the chicken off the bones and, with a sharp knife, chop it into bite-sized pieces.In a heavy 12-inch skillet, melt the butter and saute the sliced onions,
mushrooms, and carrots until tender. Drop in chopped chicken meat. Over medium-low heat, cook it into the vegetables for about 10 minutes. While chicken and vegetables are sauteing, remove chicken stock from refrigerator, skim off the fat, place the skimmed stock into a soup pot, along with the remaining 2 quarts of water. At this point, you should season the soup stock to taste with salt and pepper. Drop in the sauteed chicken, mushrooms, onion rings and diced carrots -
along with the sherry, the Tabasco, and as soon as it comes to a boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer the soup about 30 minutes to allow all the flavors to thoroughly blend. When you're ready to eat, ladle out heaping helpings of the piping hot soup into bowls, garnish with a sprinkling of thinly sliced green onions, and serve with crunch saltines. I used several generous shakes of Tabasco. It was spicy, but not overwhelmingly hot and fiery. And it was HEAVENLY!