Whole chicken soup

Ingredients

• 1 Organic/free range chicken
• 3-4 carrots, peeled and sliced into large pieces
• ½ celery, sliced into large pieces
• 12 new organic potatoes with the skin left on, cut into large pieces
• 2 cloves of crushed garlic
• 1-2 chillies
• 2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
• A few sprigs of thyme, left on the stem (add as much as you like)
• 2 large handfuls of frozen or fresh peas
• 1 leek, washed and sliced finely
• 1 small bunch of flat leaf parsley, remove the stalks and chop the leaves roughly

Method

Wash your chicken in cold water and pat dry with kitchen paper.

Place the chicken, carrots, celery, potatoes, chilli, crushed garlic, apple cider vinegar and thyme into a large, deep pan and pour in 3 litres of filtered water or enough to cover the chicken.

Simmer on a medium heat for 1-1½ hours or until the chicken is cooked through. The cooking time depends on the size of the chicken so be sure to check your chicken after 1 hour. If the chicken falls apart when you try to lift it then it is ready.

Remove the chicken from the pan and strain the broth.

Save the veg for later.

Put the broth back on a high heat and allow to reduce for 15 minutes until there’s about 2 litres left.

Note: this is the difficult part, you will need a large pan to strain the broth into, and a big enough strainer to hold all the vegetables. Try not to burn yourself here!

Meanwhile, tear the cooked chicken into long chunks.

Once the broth has reduced, throw the vegetables back in the pan with the peas, leeks and chicken.

Simmer for a further 5 minutes, then remove the sprigs of thyme (normally just the twigs are removed and the leaves remain).

Serve in warm bowls sprinkled with chopped parsley.

Recipe provided by
Hayley Stockbridge & Aimee Gardiner
Naturopaths
Better Health