The Four Day Chicken–And Then of Course, There’s Soup

What would a four-day chicken challenge be without including the comfort of soup?  I hardly think I need to include a recipe since everyone has their own version–just like grandma used to make, right?  But since boring and bland are not tastes I want coming from my kitchen, I have added a few twists to make this soup oh, so very nice.

For starters, I actually started the soup on Day One of my challenge.  After removing most of the meat from my roasted chicken, I put the bones back into my cast iron dutch oven along with the giblets which I had kept just for stock.  I added a quartered onion, 2 large stalks of celery cut into large pieces, 2 cloves of garlic, and 2 large carrots cut into chunks.  I covered this with water–about 8 cups–and allowed it simmer for a couple of hours.  By that time, I was ready for bed so I refrigerated the whole thing.

The next day, I skimmed off most of the fat and removed all remaining meat from the bones.  If I only wanted the broth, I would have reheated the pot just until the juices had liquefied, and would then have strained it through cheesecloth in my colander. Then I would have divided the clarified broth into freezer containers for later use.

Some vegetable pastas get mushy when reheated so if you are freezing your leftover soup, remove the remaining noodles.  In a later post, I’ll teach you how to freeze and reheat them successfully.

Now that I have reached the end of my four-day challenge, it is your turn.  How do you cook your pastured chicken?  What do you do with the leftovers?  What ideas, tips, and secrets can you share?  Cooking and learning together is fun and motivates us all to make wiser, healthier choices in delicious ways.