which came first the chicken or the soup? the chicken!

"What did Kristen do with chicken?"  I am sure this question has been burning in your brain for longer than a week now.  Since, I'm also sure you have nothing better to do than to tirelessly check my blog to see if I've posted anything new allow me to apologize yet again...  I  have been busy trying to get settled here in A2 and have completely neglected my blogging responsibilities, but I am back, and ready to settle into a rhythm.

As for the chicken...

Well, I used it for two very different dishes.  After removing the whole bird from the crock pot, I shredded all of the meat and set it in two containers.  Then rather than just throwing the bones away, I returned them to the drippings in the crock pot, added veggies, spices and water. Setting the crock pot on low for the rest of the night, I woke up to a lovely chicken stock.   Which I then used to make homemade chicken soup.

I used half of the chicken for the soup and half the chicken for taco/quesadilla meat.  After all was said and done I ended up with 14 cups of chili and 12 cups of soup.

I still two weeks later, have most of the soup and half of the chili.

....more still to report from these two days of epic cooking!  For now, enjoy my tuscan chicken soup recipe.


Ingredients:

1 onion
4 carrots
1/2 the meat of roasted chicken
1/2 cup of chopped fresh italian (or flat leaf) parsley
1 32-oz can of diced Italian stew tomatoes
3 cloves of garlic (whole and peeled)
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp. dried thyme
1 tsp. cumin
2 quarts of chicken broth
salt and pepper to taste
juice of one lemon (optional)

Dice onion and carrots, and sauté in small amount of olive oil and salt and pepper just until the vegetables are soft. Add chicken, lemon juice, and cumin. Allow flavors to combine for just a couple of minutes, then add all other ingredients. Bring to a boil.  Reduce to simmer and allow to simmer for a minimum of 1 hour.  (I cooked mine for 3 hours.)