A Different Chicken Soup
Base Chicken Stock...
1 whole chicken cut in pieces
10 c water
1 medium carrot
1 medium stalk of celery
1/4 c green bell pepper
1/4 c small Vidalia onion
2 T olive oil
For adders at serving time...
1 recipe of rice from this website...
1 ripe avocado cut in chunks then salted and peppered...
2 Roma tomatoes peeled, diced, salted and peppered...
Place chicken in the water and bring to a boil... grind salt and pepper generously...
Reduce temperature to medium heat, cover the pot and readjust the temperature to where the water has a medium boil… vent the top to reduce the steam splatter...
Boil the chicken for about 30 minutes until the meat is tender and falling off the leg bones...
While the chicken is cooking... dice the bell pepper and onion and place in a small bowl...
Start the rice...
Peel the celery to remove strings, then thinly slice the celery and carrot and add to the same bowl...
Salt and pepper the vegetables then stir to evenly coat the vegetables with the seasonings...
Remove the meat from the bones and discard all of the chicken parts except the meat...
Save all the broth to strain and set to low heat to keep hot...
Using a soup ladle, dip the broth and strain it into a 4 cup mixing cup..
Place a soup pot on medium-high heat and add olive oil and grind salt and pepper to the oil...
Place half of the vegetables in the pot and sauté when the oil is hot and the pepper begins to sizzle...
Sauté until the vegetables begin to brown or about 3 minutes... then add the chicken and stir for just a few seconds until the bottom of the pot begins to get rough...
Before anything sticks, add the mixing cup of broth to the pot... being careful of the steam and cover and reduce to a light boil...
Strain another 4 cups of broth into the mixing cup...
Use the ladle to remove most of the layer of fat that rises to the top and discard...
Add this broth to the soup pot...
About 10 minutes before serving add the remaining half of the vegetables to the soup...
Now to build the soup to serve...
Call everyone to the table...
Place 2 big spoons of cooked, rinsed and drained rice in the bottom of each serving bowl...
Ladle the soup onto the cooked rice...
Spoon tomatoes and avocado to the liking of each at the table and allow them to season with cracked salt and pepper and Tabasco to their liking...
Serves 3 to 4 happily...