I roasted a chicken last night, which we ate with glazed carrots, onions and mushrooms, along with potatoes and from-scratch chicken gravy. Since there was just the two of us, and it was nearly a 5 pound bird, there was a lot left over. We carved off the meat and made this soup in our slow cooker with the remains. The soup has a creamy texture, but doesn't have any cream in it. Along with slightly sour taste from the lemon this soup verges on addictive and is the kind of thing you wake up craving when the weather outside is stormy.
I hate having to dirty other pans when using our cooker, so this can be done completely in the cooker:
1. Make chicken broth (do this the night before, as you clean up after enjoying your chicken dinner)
Place the chicken carcass - which should be free of skin and picked nearly clean of meat - in your slowcooker. Break it up a bit so it's sitting nicely on the bottom of the crock. Cover with about 2.5-3 qts of water (just fill it up so it's pretty much covering the bones, but don't overdo the water or your soup will have less flavor). Add some herbs (fresh or dried) and a few smashed garlic cloves (no need to completely peel these; just get most of the peel more or less off). Whatever you have on hand will work; we used fresh rosemary and three skinny cloves from the center of the garlic head, since those cloves are annoying to use for other uses. Set the whole thing on high for 1 hr, then on low for 8-10 hrs. When done, strain out all the solids and put the liquid broth back in the crock.
Warning: The smell may drive your kitty a little crazy. Ours couldn't tell where the chicken smell was coming from and kept waking us up to check to see if it was in our bed.
2. Cook veggies (optional) and rice in broth (do this the next morning)
Add 1/2 cup of uncooked brown rice to the broth in the crock. I like brown rice because it holds up to being re-heated. Optionally, also add sliced celery, onion and carrots. Add herbs, fresh or dry, such as oregano, thyme, basil, bay leaf. Cook on high for 3 hours. Everything should be nice and soft. At this point you basically have a nice chicken and rice soup.
NOTE: It's important to have a starch in this soup, as it helps stabilize the egg emulsion. You can also use orzo (and, I've heard, tapioca) but this requires less cooking time. You'll have to look up how much time orzo takes to soften in a slow-cooker if you prefer it.
3. Finish the soup (just in time for lunch!)
Remove approximately 2 cups of broth from the pot (try to avoid the veggies and rice) and let cool slightly. Salt the remaining broth, 1 tsp at a time, to taste. Mine took about 4 tsp. of salt. In a medium bowl, whisk 2 whole large eggs together with the juice of 2 small, juicy lemons (these are juicier than the large ones). Very slowly, whisk in 2 cups of the still-hot broth into the eggs and lemon, pouring in the broth in a slow, steady stream and whisking vigorously. Add this "sauce" back into the hot soup and stir. If you like, add pieces of chopped chicken leftover from your roast, and allow to heat through. Just before serving adjust the salt again and add some grinds of pepper.
Makes about 4 servings:
200 calories per serving
13g carb (26%), 8g fat (36%), 19g (38%) protein
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