Chicken Soup
It started out to be chicken soup. While putting ice back into the freezer, I had seen a chicken carcass in a Ziploc bag. Dumping the contents of this bag into my crockpot and quickly covering with water, I turned the temperature to high and added the lid. Continuing to rummage in my freezer, I found my collection of plastic containers with leftover broths and liquids from previous culinary adventures. After making a good soup broth from the cooking of the chicken rack, the liquids in these containers would add flavor to my concoction.
Remembering I had some chicken breasts in my larger freezer that needed to be cooked, I decided to wait until they were a bit less frozen before adding them to the crockpot. I would use some of this meat to make my chicken soup a bit meatier and save the rest for a future casserole. After some time, I came back into the kitchen to add the breasts and realized that what I had assumed to be a chicken rack was really a bag of garbage meant for the trash. As where we live is known for hot weather, I often put garbage in a Ziploc bag until trash day so as not to create a smelly trash can. So now I had a nice mess in my crockpot and my chicken soup plans needed a rewrite.
Deciding to cook my now defrosted chicken breasts in a pot of water on the stove, I again made a plan. However, after opening up my saved broth and liquid containers treasure, I decided to nix the chicken soup and make what we call “hodge podge” soup. There in my collection of leftover liquids was my favorite ingredient for soup, the broth from a previous night of cooking salmon in melted butter with lots of dill. Removing the cooked chicken breasts from the pot and setting them aside for another meal, I dumped the rest of my concoctions into the pot. A broth from a recent brisket celebration meal, some vegetable cooking water and more broth from other chicken cooking ventures contributed to a delicious aroma beyond compare.
After a bit more time on the stove, I cooled this soup base and refrigerated it until the next day. This additional time for flavors to unite would add more character to my hodge podge soup. Now the fun part comes, when I see what needs to be used up in my freezer and fridge. A few frozen mixed vegetables are left in a freezer bag. What about those meatballs that need to be used? Some rice too goes in the pot and dinner is a true success! Husband comments on how delicious the broth of this soup is! I added a loaf of homemade bread and a nice salad as complement.
Making soup from leftovers of this and that is my favorite kind of frugal cooking. Freezing left over juices or broths from the cooking of meat seems to intensify the flavors. Another advantage is that the fat comes to the surface and can be scraped off and discarded if so desired. In most of my homemade soups I will sauté and add onion, garlic, and sometimes celery. But because many of these items had been added in the original cooking, it was necessary to add these for flavor. The only down side I see to this frugal cooking experience is that it can be hard to duplicate the soup again!
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2 Responses to “Chicken Soup”
October 28th, 2010 at 9:24 am
I have to say that even though I’ve experienced some kitchen doozies, this (garbage from freezer to crock-pot) was a new one on me
Great post and thanks for the tips about hodge-podge soup!
November 3rd, 2010 at 2:10 pm
Great post! I have never thought of saving the broth/juices from meat. I love this idea & I’m sorry about the loss of your “chicken trash!”
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