Chicken soup

P has a fever. He's been fighting a cold for a couple of weeks, so hopefully this is its last hurrah. Even if it is, though, a fever merits a batch of homemade chicken soup.

There are two steps to my soup: first, make the chicken broth; second, assemble the soup. Homemade chicken broth is easy with a slow cooker. I have two sizes of slow cooker; for this, I use my smaller one, since the large one would make way too much for my apartment-sized freezer. The best slow cooker cookbook is, without a doubt, Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Recipes for Two: For the Small Slow Cooker (or its larger cousin, Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook), by Beth Hensperger. This cookbook was perfect for cooking for myself while living alone. I always had homemade frozen meals in the freezer, and it works equally well for cooking for me and P.

Now, for those of you thinking "why on earth would I own a slow cooker?", these recipes are more than just cocktail meatballs and nastiness made from onion dip mix and cream of mushroom soup. This cookbook has easy recipes that ask for things that are in a typical, well-stocked kitchen. The ribs I mentioned in the last post were made in a slow cooker - and were made using a recipe from this cookbook.

Now, assembling the soup is really just a process of adding what I like to chicken soup to a pot with the broth. Chicken, carrots, celery, and egg noodles - that's it. I like a chicken soup with lots of stuff in it, so the proportion of ingredients to broth is nearly 1 to 1. I briefly sauteed the carrots and celery in a bit of butter; added the broth, brought it to a boil, and added the noodles. Just before the noodles were done, I added the already-cooked chicken to the pot to warm it through. I used chicken thighs, which were roasted with the skin on for moistness, but any leftover chicken will do. I then added salt to taste. You'll notice that the recipe below for broth does not call for salt - I like adding it whenever I'm actually using the broth so I have more flexibility with the dish's saltiness.

Here's the recipe for the broth. It is modified from Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Recipes for Two: For the Small Slow Cooker, because I am even lazier than the recipe originally demanded. I generally set up the slow cooker just before bed and wake up in the early morning wondering where the chicken smell is coming from. Not a bad way to be woken up!

Chicken Broth
makes 6 - 8 cups

1/2 pounds chicken on a bone (thighs, wings, drumsticks - pull of as much skin as you can. Enough bones to fill the slow cooker will work, too, if you've been saving chicken carcasses.)
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and quartered
2 stalks of celery, cut into pieces so they'll fit in cooker
3 or 4 whole black peppercorns
1/2 bay leaf

Place all of ingredients in slow cooker. Add water to cover by 2 - 3 inches. Cover and cook on low for 10 - 12 hours. When cooking is completed, cool slightly and drain through strainer, or colander lined with cheesecloth. Refrigerate, covered with plastic wrap, until fat rises to surface. Pull off plastic wrap; most of the fat will stick to it and come with it. Scoop off the rest of the fat; use immediately, or freeze.