There’s nothing better than roasting a chicken low and slow for Sunday dinner. But, I don’t stop there. While I’m doing the dishes after dinner, I’ve got the chicken carcass in a stockpot simmering away on the stove so my husband Matt and I can have a delicious homemade stock for soup later on.
Here’s how it goes: I always have a few gizzards in a baggie in the freezer, collected from whole chickens I’ve roasted. I have a stockpot on the stove with water. I add whole peppercorns to the pot (they sink to the bottom), the chicken carcass, a couple of gizzards, and any ugly, aging vegetables we might have in the crisper drawer (onions, carrots, celery, brussel sprouts). By the time the dishes are done, we’ve got the base for a soup.
After the stock cools, I’ll stain into a container, label it, and freeze it. When we’re ready to make a soup, I grab a container of stock, defrost it, and start the soup.
• ON-DEMAND: Listen to Alex describe how his quick cocidos soup recipe comes together on The Faith Middleton Food Schmooze®. •
If I want to take the soup in a Spanish direction, I’ll add uncured, fresh chorizo to the stock. It’s important to pierce the casing of the chorizo with a fork so the chorizo doesn’t “pop” in the stock—and also so the wonderful smoky paprika flavor can be released into the soup as it cooks.
Next, I add garbanzo beans. If you haven’t soaked them ahead, or if you don’t have time for that step, you can just throw a can of garbanzo beans in the pot after you’ve rinsed them; that works, too.
As a final step, I add a couple of potatoes, roughly chopped into big chunks, and let it all simmer for about 30 minutes. The result is my quick version of a Spanish cocidos, a traditional hearty bean soup that usually takes hours to make.
— Alex Province
Photo by Alpha/Flickr, creative commons
- 2 quarts chicken stock
- 1 links uncured chorizo
- 1 can garbanzo beans (or fresh garbanzo beans soaked overnight)
- 1 pound yukon gold potatoes or winter squash chopped into chunks
- 4 ounces spaghetti broken in half (optional)
- 1 bunch kale or other leafy greens (optional, for a northern Spanish twist)
- See description above for how to make the homemade stock. When you're ready to make this soup, put the defrosted stock in a soup pot, pierce the casing of a link of chorizo, and add it to the pot. Add the beans and potatoes and simmer for about 30 minutes. If you're adding the optional pasta and kale, add them to the pot about 10-15 minutes before you're ready to take the soup off the stove, longer if you like them very soft.
