Monday, November 4, 2013

Roasted Garlic Chicken Soup.

You have a cold.  You need chicken soup.  This is the one to make:  veggies, garlic, chicken and chicken stock.  Take care of yourself; savor the soup.

Ingredients

1 head of garlic, broken into paper-covered cloves.
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast

2 carrots, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
1 medium onion, diced

1 - 1/2 quarts Swanson Organic Chicken Broth

Olive Oil
Fresh thyme sprigs
2 tsps fresh thyme leaves
Salt and Pepper

Directions

1.  Prep the Garlic.

Preheat a toaster oven to 350.  Line a pan with aluminum foil.  Scatter the garlic cloves on the pan, drizzle a teaspoon or two of olive oil over the garlic, and season with a little salt and pepper.  Add a sprig or two of fresh thyme. Bake for about 30 minutes, until the cloves are soft and lightly browned, but not burned.  Remove the garlic from the oven and set aside to cool.

When cool, squeeze the baked garlic cloves out of the paper shelves and into a large, Pyrex measuring cup. Add some of the chicken broth; use your judgment on amount.  The goal is to liquefy the garlic using an immersion blender.  Blend the garlic into the broth with the immersion blender or you can try achieving this goal using a blender.

2.  Poach the Chicken.

Use what ever method you prefer to poach the boneless, skinless chicken breast.  Here is one example from about.com  After it is poached and cooled, cut into bite-sized dice.

3.  Make the Soup.

In your soup pot, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat.  Add diced carrots, celery and onion. Saute until veggies are softened and the onion is translucent, 6 to 10 minutes.  Don't burn the veggies!

Add to the pot the garlic-and-chicken-broth mixture, the remainder of the chicken broth, and the 2 teaspoons of fresh thyme.  Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer everything together for 8 minutes. Add the chicken and simmer another 2-3 minutes.  Check the seasoning and adjust appropriately with salt and pepper.

Serve hot.