Jamie's Dinners
1 hr 30 mins
Super easy
serves 6
About the recipe
When I get a bad case of man flu, this simple twist on chicken soup perks me right up.
Recipe From
Ingredients
1 x 1.5kg free-range organic chicken
2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
2 sticks of celery, roughly chopped
1 rasher of smoked bacon, preferably free-range or organic
2/3 sprigs of fresh rosemary
a handful of shiitake mushrooms
optional: a splash of sherry or port
sea salt
extra virgin olive oil
Top Tip
Like consommé, if you want to serve this at a dinner party or you want to vary its flavour, the actual soup will always stay the same but the garnish that you add can differ from mushrooms, to florets of cauliflower, to julienned veg. A nice thing you can do is add a splash of sherry or port just before serving to give it a little twang. All these things are great to try, but I just really like my mum's simple chicken broth. Her secret ingredient was a rasher of smoked bacon, and sometimes she'd add a few sprigs of rosemary for the last ten minutes.
Method
- Put your chicken, carrot, celery and bacon in a large saucepan, cover with water and bring to the boil.
- Turn the heat down and simmer slowly for an hour and a quarter, skimming the white residue off the top every now and again.
- Add your rosemary sprigs, shitake mushrooms and sherry (if you are using it) for the last 10 minutes, then remove the chicken from the pan. It should be perfectly cooked, and will be great for salads or sandwiches or for tearing into slivers to put into the soup.
- Season the soup with salt and ladle it through a sieve into bowls, trying not to disrupt it too much as you want to keep it reasonably clear. Add the chicken slivers and a few mushrooms to each bowl and drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil. The finished thing should be a kinda clear consommé.
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