How to Turn One Chicken into Three Distinct Soups with Chef John

Hi, this is Chef John from foodwishes.com and today we have one chicken and three soups. That's right, from one carcass we will make enough broth and get enough meat for three wonderful soups: Thai chicken soup with coconut curry, classic chicken noodle soup- only instead of pasta, we will take pasta, and a very hearty Tuscan soup with white beans and herbs. To make all this work, we need to put a big, nice chicken in a pot, along with what's usually inside: the neck, stomach, and heart. But, believe it or not, I got a neck and three hearts. Yes, one for each soup. Thank you, universe. Oh, there's usually liver in there too, but we won't add it.

You can leave it for the pate. But we will add onions, carrots, celery, bay leaves, and one cooking secret- onion skins, which have almost no effect on the taste, but give the broth a wonderful golden color. Then we'll put the pot on the stove, fill everything with fresh cold water, and bring to a boil over high heat. And yes, I filled it dangerously close to the rims. But we need a lot of broth and everything will be fine. Plus, it will force us to be careful, because as soon as the water starts to boil, and before it spills out, we will reduce the heat to a minimum and maintain a very, very gentle simmer for an hour. only tiny bubbles to appear on the surface, no more. And in an hour our broth will look like this.

Now let's take out the chicken so we can separate the meat. To make it easier and safer, I'll ladle out three or four cups of the broth and set it aside for a minute while we get the chicken out. As you can see, the carcass has split in the pelvic area, which means it is perfectly cooked. By the way, about the pelvis: anything with bones can be left in the broth. In fact, when we pour back the selected broth, we will use tongs to catch all the non-meat parts and return them to the pot, because we want to extract the flavor from them while the meat cools. So, we tear off both wings, possibly the pelvic bone, and a few leg bones, which are easily removed. And definitely all the skin, which you can safely remove. We'll leave this to simmer

until the meat cools down a bit so we can work with it. After that we will separate the meat from the bones. I'm going to use two separate containers: one for white meat, one for dark meat. Because for my Thai coconut soup, I will use all the chopped white meat. And for chicken pasta, I'll use mostly dark meat and a little white meat. By the way, don't waste 15 minutes trying to get every last piece. Only large pieces of meat will be enough. Because after we pick everything, we'll put everything back in the pot. And these leftover meat, along with the bones, will make our broth even better. That's all. We will mix everything and leave our broth

to simmer over very low heat for another 2.5 hours. And again, I mean very weak. So, this is the secret to the great taste and appearance of chicken broth. After 2.5 hours it should look something like this. Then we will very carefully strain it through a fine sieve, which can be done with just a ladle, that will be enough. But if you have a slotted spoon, it will make the process of transferring the meat much easier. After that, we will simply take the pan and pour the broth through a sieve. Then we will let it drain until every drop is gone. Because to make three servings of soup from one chicken, we will need every drop. We will know that everything is ready when not a single drop falls within five minutes. So don't rush it, because the broth still

needs to cool down. And that's it. We will make the final push. And when everything cools down, we'll remove the lid. And if everything went according to plan, we should end up with about 12 cups of delicious, wonderful homemade chicken broth. Once it's ready, we can make our first soup-a very simple version of tom kha gai. Before that, we will add chopped shallots, minced ginger, and garlic to the oil heated over medium heat. And we will cook, stirring, for about 1 minute. Once the spices start to sizzle, we will add the sliced mushrooms. And we will cook, stirring, for another minute. In many recipes, the mushrooms need to be fried until golden brown, but we won't do that here. We'll just soften them a little they can absorb

some of this aromatic oil. And when that happens, we'll add a big spoonful of red curry paste, as well as a little brown sugar to balance the flavor. We'll cook, stirring, for another minute before adding 4 cups of our wonderful broth, which, because we've prepared it correctly and it's cold, will be somewhat gelatinous. Then we'll also add a whole can of coconut milk. Then wait until everything starts to boil and mix. After that, reduce the heat to medium- low and let the soup simmer for only 5 minutes, after which you can add the chicken. As I said, I only use white meat, which I have taken apart and torn into spoon-sized pieces -I think

it absorbs the flavor faster that way. Once mixed, we'll add our Asian fish sauce-it's one of the most important ingredients. Let simmer over medium-low heat for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. That's all. To finish off this very simple soup, squeeze in some fresh lime juice. Of course, to taste, but if you're wondering, I used a lime and a half. That's all. Stir and turn off the heat. Of course, we'll taste it to see if there's enough spice. Remember, our chicken stock is unsalted, so even though the fish sauce is quite salty, I decided to add one big pinch of salt. When we are satisfied with the taste,

we can serve it. At the end, I garnish my soup with red chili slices and fresh cilantro leaves. By the way, each of these recipes is designed for four servings of soup. These are quite large, hearty, and meaty portions. In short, having decorated the dish, I took a spoon and began to taste. And this, friends, is one of my favorite soups of all time. This time it turned out even more incredible because I used that wonderful homemade broth. Besides the fact that this soup is incredibly tasty and very filling, it is also wonderfully invigorating. I believe it should be in the culinary arsenal of anyone who makes chicken soup. So, this was soup number one, which I really

enjoyed. And we move on to soup number two. We'll start by sautéing some onions, carrots, and celery in a generous amount of melted butter over medium heat. Also at this stage we will add salt. We'll cook this, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes, until the vegetables are soft and sweet and the onions are translucent. When we are satisfied with the appearance of the vegetables, we pour in the broth. Bring everything to a boil over high heat, then stir. Then reduce the heat to medium or slightly below medium. Add the dark meat and the rest of our chopped white meat. Along with freshly ground black pepper. And a few dashes of cayenne pepper, which are

optional, but actually a must. We'll mix it all together and let it simmer for about 10 minutes. Or longer if necessary, until the vegetables are completely soft. After that, you can add the pasta. As you can see, I'm using small tubes- it's one of my favorite shapes, but cone pasta would work too, as would classic broken egg noodles. So, personally, I find it more convenient to eat shorter pasta. And that's it. Once they are in the pot, we will cook the soup until the pasta is tender. I should note that some people like to cook under a lid so that the liquid doesn't boil away, because we want to have enough for the pasta. But I like to see what's going on inside. So I prefer to just add a little water if needed. For me, this always works. In

any case, we will cook until the pasta is done, which only took me about 6 minutes. In addition to checking for doneness, we will, of course, taste the soup to check the spices. But everything was perfect for me. So I went straight to serving. I garnished the dish with freshly picked thyme leaves. Although a little tarragon or freshly cut chives would also be very appropriate. No matter what you use, you will end up with a great chicken pasta soup. You can safely eat less pasta and chicken if you want. But I wanted the soup to be a filling and complete meal. So, serve this with a salad and a few slices of crusty bread-you'll be completely satisfied. So, soup number two was also a big success, and I was very pleased, which means we can move on to soup number

three. We start by sautéing the onion with a large pinch of salt and a generous amount of olive oil over medium heat. We will cook this, stirring, for about 5 minutes, until the onion is translucent. And when it looks something like this, we'll add a lot of crushed garlic and cook, stirring, for about a minute. I really hope you love garlic and add as much as I do, because it's one of the secrets to great bean and green dish, especially soups. And once we remove the raw taste of garlic, we'll add a can of white beans, namely cannellini. Next, add freshly ground black pepper, as well as some red chili flakes if you want to make the soup a little spicier. Then pour in the rest of the broth, increase the heat to maximum and wait for the soup to boil. While this is

happening, I like to take a potato masher and mash some of the beans, about half. This will give the soup a slightly thicker and more tender texture. I also like to add a little fresh chopped rosemary, which I think goes perfectly with any bean soup. We mix everything and wait for the soup to boil vigorously over high heat. After that, I add two bunches of Tuscan cabbage, also known as dino cabbage, from which I have removed the stems and torn the leaves into small pieces. We mix everything, reduce the heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until the desired softness. For me, it takes about 15 minutes. Of course, you can cook less if you want to retain more texture. Or you can simmer for half an hour if you want it to be very

soft. Anyway, when we are satisfied with the result, we taste the soup for salt. Mine was great. If everything is good, add a little freshly squeezed lemon juice at the end. Okay, I'll take half a lemon, but add to your taste. We mix and turn off the heat. Check again before serving. I always drizzle a drizzle of olive oil on top of the serving. Now enjoy this soup with fresh crusty bread. But if you want to make the dish even better, fry the cubed bread in olive oil until golden brown. Then sprinkle with grated Parmesan and let it toast for a few more seconds to get the perfect croutons to finish off the meal. And at the end, add some fresh chopped parsley. Of the three soups we made, this one is definitely the most rustic and hearty. And since it's quite

thick, we don't even need chicken meat in it. This allowed us not to regret it for the other two soups. So, all we really need for this is a rich broth. So I left this soup for last so there would be no temptation. But in the end, that's all. How to turn one large chicken into three wonderful soups. Once you master the first part of the process, where we make the broth and process the meat, you can make a lot of variations with these soups. So I really want you to use these recipes simply as ideas for inspiration. After all, you're new to this business-how to make three soups from one chicken. But no matter what you choose, I wanted to show you the possibilities, and I hope you'll try it out soon.

Please follow the links below to find ingredient amounts, a printable recipe, and lots of other helpful information. And as always, delicious.