Two Day Chicken Soup

I have been taking a Boot Camp class very early in the morning three mornings a week for the past few months.  I love the camp, and highly recommend it.  But about ten days ago, we were doing side steps in Golden Gate Park, and I fell.  On to a curb.  With most of my weight.  And cracked a rib.

It hasn't been a very fun couple weeks.  As anyone who has had a rib injury knows, there's really not much you can do for it.  It just hurts, and the only thing you can do is take pain killers.  For the record, you're not supposed to bind your ribs which is an old method of healing that doctors used to prescribe.  Now, they know that the best thing to do is to encourage deep breathing, so that your lungs can stay healthy.  At least that's what my doctor told me.

Anyway, last week in a fit of helplessness, I went to an acupuncturist.  While I had gone to acupuncture before, this was my first time seeing this particular acupuncturist.  She was great, and I am going to go back to her.

At the end of the session, she said to me, "In Chinese medicine, they say that whatever you are deficient in, you should eat it.  Now I'm not telling you to go gnaw on a bone, but do you cook?"

"Oh, I cook.  And I have a bunch of chicken carcasses in my freezer."

I think I saw her give me a sidelong glance, but she seemed happy as she told me to go home and make a soup from all those bones to help my rib.  I thought to myself that Nigella would be proud, and headed home.

You must keep stock in your freezer, and also the bones you have saved to make it.  Turn your freezer into your very own Golgotha by throwing in lamb bones, chicken carcasses, and any other bones at hand.  I have been known to take home the carcasses with me after a dinner party once I've found out that (a) they have come from my butcher and (b) they were going to be thrown away. Nigella Lawson, How to Eat

So I went home and began the two-day soup.  Since I am not one for recipes (see some of my fellow bloggers for that type of blog), I can only tell you generally what I did:

The first step was to make the broth.  I put three chicken carcasses into a large pot, added a quartered onion (washed, not peeled), a head of garlic (not peeled), a couple of bay leaves, and enough water to cover the carcasses.  I brought the water to a boil, and then lowered it to a simmer.  After opening a couple windows so that our house wouldn't turn into a sauna, I let it go until I was about to go to bed -- probably a couple of hours.  When I was a kid, we lived in a 100-year old house in Southern California.  Our laundry room was an enclosed porch which was always cooler than the rest of the house.  If we were still in that house, I would have taken the entire pot out onto the back porch to cool overnight.

Since I wasn't in that house, I strained the broth through my chinois (you can use cheesecloth), and then put the pot in a coolish place in the house overnight.  I felt fairly safe keeping it out because of San Francisco's cool nights, but your other option is to put it in the fridge.  The next day, the fat will have raised to the top and it is easy to skim off.

After skimming off the fat, I took a whole chicken, rinsed and trimmed of extra skin, and added it to the broth.  After the chicken boiled for about 15-20 minutes and was cooked through, I removed it and let it cool.  I skimmed the broth once more, added some large pieces of ginger (large enough that they can be removed later) and a diced onion.  After the broth had cooked down a little bit -- probably about 20 minutes -- I added the chicken meat that I had removed from the cooled chicken by hand, added salt, removed the ginger, and spooned the soup into bowls.  I added some fresh basil leaves, a squeeze of lemon, and a spoonful of chili flakes to each serving. 

Delicious.  I'm feeling better all ready.

Comments

[Jennifer]

Oh Jen! I've been meaning to ask you about the Boot Camp for weeks now because I really wanted to take one when I lived out there. I'm SO sorry to hear about your rib. It sounds like you are doing all the right things, though, and I hope your healing and recovery are speedy. I'll be sending positive thoughts (and a few prayers!) your way. Take gentle care.

[Molly]

Sorry about your rib! Your soup sounds lovely and healing.

I recently had someone recommend using your old hard cheese rinds in making soup stock. Hadn't thought of this before, but sounded like a great idea.

So sorry to hear about your rib. So it must have been bothering you at Blogher, but you didn't complain at all. What a woman.

I love making chicken stock and always save all those scraps and bones just like Nigella says!! Somehow it helps me create the illusion of being thrifty. Thanks for including me with your recipe blog friends. It was sure fun to get to meet you at last, although I wish we could have talked more.

[kalyn]

Duh, that comment above was me, but I guess I didn't sign in.

[jen]

Thanks everyone.

Jennifer, I love the boot camp. I wrote a detailed review about it on Yelp (I am J M).

Molly, I have done that before. I think the most important thing is to make sure that you only have rind left ... no cheese on the rind. Super good because it adds a depth to the broth. That's another suggestion that I originally learned from Nigella too.

Kalyn, you found me out. I thought I was terribly cranky during BlogHer but I'm glad you didn't pick up on it. ;) I wish we could have talked more too! BTW - did you see cookiecrumb's comment on the last post? We are both VegeSal lovers!

[cookiecrumb]

Oh, s#%*! I was going to leave a nice comment about chicken stock, and I see I've been outed as the VegeSal snark!
:D
Actually, Jen, I just want to reiterate something I told you once, that you don't really have to save sacks and sacks of bones for a stock. I recently made a chicken stock from one carcass, a pile of shelled pea pods, and some random aromatics.
Sending you "tender" get-well wishes on the rib. (Did I tell you the reason I broke my rib a few years ago was because of a hula skirt?)

[Catherine]

Oy! Ouch! Poor thing.

Since I love Nigella and boot camp (I used to do yours -- do you still work out with Jen? -- but have since switched to another one) I just wanted to log on and say hi and that I hope you are hanging in there.

[Tea]

You poor thing! I hope you are feeling better. I am back in town, so anything you need just call. I can deliver from Arizmendi or the farmers' market, if desired:-)

[Amy Sherman]

Best wishes for a speedy recovery. Your soup sounds good, I sometimes add a tiny bit of vinegar to the bones to help break them down a bit. At least I think that's why I do it!

[Diane]

Feel better!

I make stock every two to three weeks, and also have a slaughterhouse freezer. Nothing like making chcken stock to make the whole house smell good...

[Mary]

Ouch! That sounds awful.

Reading your post makes me want to make a bunch of stock, or get my husband to do it. I am also in pain lately and seeing an acupuncturist due to a back injury. Chicken soup seems to be one thing that would cheer me up, taste good, and relax me.

[Liz]

Interesting post. I smacked the heck out of my coccyx snowboarding when I lived in Japan and one of my coworker's fathers was an acupuncturist. After a few weeks of walking around bent double I finally approached my coworker, *begging" for help. She said, "This is a bone issue- my father cannot help you."

I guess she was wrong?