Sweet and Spicy Chicken Soup Recipe

Last night, I made the delicious Full Chicken Roast with Veggies.  Today, I had a lot of chicken left over and since the weather is beginning to get cooler, I decided to use the leftovers to make a soup.  There was no food waste and it was delicious.

If you didn’t have time to make your own chicken, you can pick one already done at the supermarket.  Just be sure to add all of the ingredients listed in the recipe shown for the Chicken Roast- you’ll want all of the flavors!

Since cooler weather tends to bring more colds and flus, I thought I would add a bit of spice while still having it be sweet.  I almost ate the whole thing while it was cooking on the stove.  Trust me, it’s hard not to!

Sweet and Spicy Chicken Soup

Ingredients

Leftovers from the Chicken Roast, potatoes, carrots, celery onions- the whole thing.

1 Jalapeno Pepper, chopped

Paprika

4 Thyme Sprigs

Sweet Spice Blend (Nutmeg, Clove, Allspice, Cinnamon)

4 Extra Garlic Cloves

Extra Onion Slices, about half an onion

3 Shallots

Butter

Brown Sugar

Parmigiana

Cayenne Pepper

Salt and Pepper

Chicken Broth

Water

Optional: Noodles or Rice

Instructions

Remove your leftovers of the chicken roast from the fridge.  I had kept mine in the same casserole dish so all of the juices had been absorbed by the chicken.  If you had put yours in a container, remove and put it in a casserole dish.

Add the box of Chicken broth.  The chicken should be covered in liquid, so if the broth doesn’t accomplish this, add some water.

In a small pan over medium heat, heat up some butter and mix the extra onion, garlic, cayenne pepper, paprika and sweet spice blend together.  The amount you use of each spice depends on who you are cooking for and how much spice and heat they can handle.  My significant other really enjoys spice, so I wasn’t too cautious.  If you’re making it for children, definitely hold back on the spice.

Make sure everything is covered by the spices.

Take the pan off of the burner.  Put the pan’s contents into your casserole dish full of chicken and vegetables.  Add the chopped jalapeno (remove the seeds if you don’t want it to be spicy!) and place the casserole dish on the burner.

Increase the heat to medium high and bring the contents to a boil.  Once it begins to boil, lower the heat to either medium or medium-low to simmer for about an hour.  You should check it every 10-15 minutes to stir.  There may be ingredients stuck at the bottom, so you should scrape it and mix well.  It is also said, that you should remove any films or fat that accumulates on the top.  I love the added flavor it gives, so I kept it in and stirred well.

After an hour, remove the chicken carcass, the sprigs of thyme and the lemons.

Don’t discard the lemons! Just allow them to cool.

Meat will have fallen off by this point, and some bones may be floating around the dish.  Strain it into a big pot and remove the bones.  You don’t want any surprises in your dish and some bones may be really small!

There is a lot of meat left on the carcass, so it’s time to get the rest of that delicious chicken.  I never realized just how much meat was wasted until I did this step.  Using a fork and knife, carefully take all of the meat off of the bones along with any remaining stuffing.

I saw that there was still a lot of meat left, but it was hard to get to, so I put the carcass back in the broth for about five minutes, removed it from pot once more and was able to get the rest of it off.  Discard the bones.

Look at how much meat you save from the bones!

Put all of the shredded meat you got off of the bones back in the liquid.   By now, the lemons you removed should be cool enough to touch.  Squeeze them and get the pulp and the juices back in with the rest of the dish.  Add some shallots and stir well.  I had a little bit of parmesan with its rind on, so I added that in too.  Many people are skeptical about adding parmesan rind to meals but it is delicious.

I found a good article-Why Parmesan Rinds Are Your Winter Cooking Savior and it explains it further!

Taste test as you go along.  If you want it to be sweeter, add some brown sugar and stir well.

Remove from heat.  Garnish with cheese and serve with a side of bread to dip.  Provide freshly ground pepper if possible.

It is absolutely delicious.

If you make it so it isn’t too spicy for others, but you, yourself would like some heat, it’s okay!  Simply add a few Red Chili Flakes, or even Tabasco sauce to your bowl.  Remember it’s always easy to add more of an ingredient but almost impossible to take them away.

What is your favorite Autumn/Winter Soup?