Is there any food more loving and comforting than a bowl of hot soup? When you are under the weather? When you are cold? When you are bone tired? When you are wet? Nothing will warm you or make you feel better faster.Confession time, I don't know how to make a small pot of soup. By the time I add everything I want to... my pot is full or I've graduated to a larger pot. Today, I'm making my 16-qt stock pot full of soup to can and eat tonight.
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| Ours is not as pretty as this one, but it works! |
We eat a lot of soups during the winter. One of Mel's favorites is a mixture of my cream of mushroom and my chicken and vegetable soups. I went to our stores building and pulled my last jar of chicken and vegetable soup. Guess what I'm cooking on my wood stove? You got it.
It's super simple to make if you've canned or dehydrated your vegetables in advance, but easy enough if you haven't. It's just a lot of chopping. Now we culled Houdini a few months ago. I pressure cooked the old rooster to tenderize him. I also canned his meat. The meat is good and tender now. I canned this old bird to use for soups so I diced the meat into quart jars. Now for the recipe. I've include grocery store items for noncanners. :o)
Jo's Homemade Chicken and Vegetable** Soup
Makes 14 qts, or 4 1/2 gallons of finished soup
2 quarts of chicken meat, or 3 lbs of diced chicken meat
6 large onions, diced
2 lbs of celery leaves and all, diced
10 cloves of garlic, minced or 3 tbs garlic powder
1 3" piece of ginger root, minced or 1 tbs ground ginger
2 lbs of carrots, diced
4 lbs potatoes, diced *(can substitutes turnips or parsnips for potatoes)
2 qt jars of diced tomatoes, or 2- 28 oz cans
2 qt jars of green beans, or 3-28oz cans
2 lbs of frozen peas
2 pint jars of whole kernel corn, or 2 cans
2 lbs cabbage or kale, diced into bite sized pieces
6 qts of chicken bone broth or stock
Enough water to fill the pot
1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 tbs oil
4 large bay leaves
2 tbs thyme
1 tbs oregano
1 tbs sage
1 tbs of kosher salt, adjust to taste
2 tsp black pepper
Coat chicken in flour. Brown the chicken in about a tbs of oil. Do this in batches. Yes, you can coat already cooked chicken. Remove chicken from the pot.
Add another tbs oil to the pot. Add onions, celery, garlic, carrots, 1/2 tsp of salt, and ginger. The salt will help the veges sweat faster. Stir cook until half way cooked. Add about two cups on broth. Scrap all the yummy goodies off the bottom of the pot.
Add remaining ingredients. Let cook for three hours loosely covered on medium heat. Stirring about every 30 minutes.
Now if you or canning this soup, When you add the remaining ingredients, stir well and ladle into jars. Pressure can per your altitude, 65 minutes for pints and 90 minutes for quarts. I don't can on my wood stove because it's too hard to maintain the heat.
Notes-
* I'll use a combination of parsnips, turnips and potatoes when I'm canning this soup. The parsnips and turnip keep their shape better during the longer canning time.
** I don't peel my root vegetables. I just give them a good scrubbing. (except for the onions, garlic and ginger)
You can add noodles, rice, spatzelle, or dumplings later to jarred soups.
Enjoy!
Y'all have a blessed day!
Jo
That's an everything but the kitchen sink soup! Love the idea of the ginger. I agree that if you're making soup from scratch, make a lot! One can never have too many jars of home canned soup.
ReplyDeleteLeigh,
ReplyDeleteGinger helps reduce inflammation, settles your stomach,lowers your blood sugar or helps balance it, reduces pain in the joints, improves brain function, it reduces risk of infection, it's an antibiotic...just to name a few benefits.