Salvadoran Chicken Soup

As promised, here is the recipe for Aidan's Aunt's Chicken Soup. I've tried to give some measurements, though most of it is done to taste, or by looks. After all, this is soup we're talking about...you can pretty much take anything you want, mix it together, add some water or broth and cook it down until you think it's done.

Rough Ingredient List:
(numbers in parenthesis are my amounts but up to you)

1 Split Chicken

Tomato (1)

Onion (1)

1 tsp Consomate Chicken Flavor

1/2 tsp Salt

Potatoes (5)

Zucchini (1)

1 Cup Long Grain Rice

Achote

Yerba Buena (Mint) (1/2 tsp)

Cilantro

I started with a BIG  pot to cook it all in. Our usual large pot would probably have worked but been just a little too small, and this pot is just a little too big. I only filled it about half way. (This is the lobster-roasting pot.)

Then I cut up and washed a whole split chicken, and added it to the pot.

You can probably use pretty much any piece of chicken you'd like. The first time I made it I heard about how I'd bought the wrong kind of chicken because someone was expecting legs only. Guess what, it tastes just fine and I distinctly remember the original chef using a whole chicken at some point. The moral of this story: use what you have/what you like. I will definitely try legs next time for the sake of having less bones.

Then I added enough water to cover the chicken. The first step is to boil the chicken. We'll cook it until the meat is just about falling off the bone. Or longer if you like.

It took me about an hour just to boil the chicken. In this time the fat and impurities float to the top. Then I took a spoon and removed as much as I could.

Here are the "impurities" I'm talking about...

Eventually it starts to subside.

There is probably a better tool for this, but for now I use a spoon and a bowl for the process.

While the chicken was cooking I cut up the vegetables. I used one tomato and the better half of an onion. Again...it's really up to you how much you want to add/leave out.

Cookin', cookin', cookin'...I had to add some more water at some point to keep it well covered.

I put the tomato and onion aside because they won't take long to cook and I had more to prepare.

I love the potatoes in this soup...that's the Irish in me coming out. See that second to last one? It didn't make it. It was replaced. Too soft, probably not good anymore. Ahem, wash and peel...

Then I cut them up into large pieces. Sorry, I forgot that picture.

I cut up most of a zucchini, I quartered the bigger slices and halved the smaller ones.

Towards the end of the chicken cooking, I added the tomato and onion.

This isn't exactly what Aidan's Aunt uses, but it's the same idea. Chicken & tomato flavor.

I added about 1 tsp of the Consomate, and 1/2 tsp salt.

Then I added the potatoes and zucchini.

Long grain rice is important, too.

I used about 1 cup for this batch...last time I had way too much, this time it was about right. Again, it's really up to you and your taste.

Here's the secret ingredient: Achote. I think. It's like a paste, I don't know much about it except it was handed to me when I was told what to put in the soup. I'll soon be learning where and how to buy this. For now, I used just a little bit, it has a really strong smell.

I used my cilantro for this, too. I really don't like chopping the cilantro though, it's kind of a pain. Last time I used fresh mint ("Yerba Buena" in Spanish), too, but I didn't know we had some in our garden this time, and I used dried flakes instead. It tastes ok, but it looks different.

There's still a lot of fat in this batch...it doesn't look very appetizing, but it is!

More to come soon!!