1/2 cup onion, chopped
1/4 cup celery, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
3 cups water or chicken stock (fat removed)
1 cup tomato, chopped
6 ounces chicken meat – lean, cooked or raw
1/4 teaspoon thyme
1/4 teaspoon marjoram
2 bay leaves
black pepper, freshly ground, to taste
Cook the onion, celery, and garlic over high heat for 2 minutes, stirring constantly until they begin to colour. Add all remaining ingredients. Cover the pot and simmer gently for 30 minutes. Ladle into warm soup bowls and serve piping hot.
NOTE:
This is a very simple and basic preparation, and an excellent way to create a thrifty meal or first course from small amounts of leftover poultry. It can, of course, be made from scratch by simply using uncooked poultry meat. I prefer to cut leftover bird parts into pieces with the bone still in and add them to the pot. However, this does require the sometimes inelegant exercise of dealing with the bones as you eat.
Variations:
Any poultry can be used, from chicken or turkey to Cornish hen or squab, and from wild duck, or poule d’eau, to snipe, quail, or pheasant. The meat of the bird can be cooked or raw. I like to add pieces of bird meat leftover from one of my smoked chickens.
A tablespoon of blond “roux” mixed with some of the stock and stirred into the soup a few minutes before the simmering is complete adds a silky texture to the dish.
Per Serving: Calories 198 Calcium 49.3 mg Protein 26.1 g Iron 2.00 mg Carbohydrates 8.03 g Dietary fibre 2.38 g Fat-total 6.66 g Fat-saturated 1.79 g Fat-mono 2.31 g Fat-Poly 1.57 g Cholesterol 75.9 mg