Halloween Chicken Soup by Barbara

This year Halloween occurred on one of the windiest days of the year. And it was cold too. So I thought a soup would be a just the ticket. 

Tom carved our pumpkin. It’s a tradition he’s been doing now for many years. He carves a fancy design and receives many compliments. This year it was a simpler one. He carved a little witch inside a cauldron.

I had my cauldron of soup going on the stove, too. This is a hearty chicken soup, chock full of vegetables with a proscuito base.   

The soup I concocted wasn’t the prettiest, but it is definitely one of the tastiest chicken soups I have ever made.   

The reason is the broth. It is rich in umami flavor. 

I used leftover gelee (pan drippings with the fat removed) from roasting chicken legs earlier in the week which had been basted with a Japanese barbecue sauce. That’s what made the soup have a dark brown broth. 

The soup is based on things I had in the refrigerator and then I went out and purchased additional items. We had a package of 4 ounces of prosciutto already diced, and meaty chicken thighs legs, a cup of gelee ftom the pan drippings, leftover roasted cauliflower and then I discovered dried oregano from our garden in 2024 in the closet, a quart of chicken broth and garlic.  So I started with the idea of creating a soup with Italian flavors.

I stopped by Wegmans and picked up carrots, Spanish onion, another chicken breast to roast to make sure the soup had enough chicken in it and a big container of mixed baby kale and Swiss chard that was already washed. And a can of diced tomatoes. And grated Parmesan Reggiano for garnish. 

I brought everything home and went to work,  It is fun to create a soup when the results turn out so well.  Tom and I enjoyed it after the trick-or-treaters had gone home and for several dinners over the weekend.  We were getting our Covid shots and I knew we would also want something easy and comforting.  This soup was indeed just the ticket.  

---Barbara

Chicken Soup with Proscuitto, Winter Greens and Vegetables

Makes 6 dinner servings

4 cups chicken broth

4 cups Better than Bouillion broth

1 14.5 ounce can diced tomates, unsalted

1 cup chicken gelee (drippings, fat removed)

4 ounces diced proscuitto

1 Spanish onion, chopped

3 - 4 slender carrots, diced fine

12 cloves garlic, skins removed and slice longways in thirds

1 large package of pre-washed kale and chard

1/2 t. fresh dried oregano

1/2 t. Penzey's Italian Herb mix

2 cups roasted cauliflower, roughly chopped

1 cup shredded dark meat from 2-3 roasted chicken legs, skins removed

1 cup shredded white meat from a roasted chicken breast, skin removed

Preheat the oven to 350° and roast the chicken breast after generously salting it and sprinkling on some garlic powder, coriander, and chervil, which is my usual mix for roasting chicken. Put it in the oven while you start the soup and prep the vegetables.

In a very large stock pot with a cover, add the diced prosciutto and keep the heat on low and let the fat render out of the prosciutto. Chop up the Spanish onion and put that in the pan and let the onion start to sweat. Then choose three or four slender carrots, scrape them, and cut into fine dice.  Put that in the pot. 

Then smash the garlic cloves and remove the outer skins. And cut them into large slivers and put that in the pot.

It takes a while to do all of this so by the time you get to this point, the chicken breast is probably done and you can pull that out of the oven and let it sit to cool down before you shred it.

Next I sprinkled the vegetables in the pot with the dried oregano from the garden, but there wasn’t much fragrance coming out of the pot so I decided to pull out the Italian herb mix from Penny’s, which is a terrific blend if you haven’t ever used it. I added about a teaspoon, maybe less to the pot as it would be the major flavor agent. 

Then I added the diced tomatoes with their juices from the can and turned up the heat and added the chicken stock/broth.  And added the gelee from the roasted BBQ chicken legs.  I had about a cup.  

I realized at this point that I probably did not have enough liquid to cover all of the vegetables and chicken that I was going to add. So I decided to create more chicken broth by using the leftover Better than Bouillon roasted chicken in the jar in the back of the fridge. It made enough for 4 cups. To use better than bouillon you heat up the water until it’s boiling and then dissolve the bouillon in to the liquid. Caution it’s very salty so be careful not to add too much salt to the soup if you’re using this product. 

Back to the soup. I added the extra broth after it was very hot and the bouillon was well dissolved. 

Turn up the heat to let it get to a simmer and that those let those flavors mingle together for about a half hour or so. 

In the meantime, shred the chicken and make sure you remove the skin from the chicken. You don't want flabby soggy skin in your soup.   And cut up the cold roasted cauliflower.  Set aside.  

Now the soup will have flavors that have mingled and it 's time to add the winter greens to the pot.  Cover it and then let the greens cook down maybe 10 minutes or so.   

Then add in the shredded chicken and cauliflower and keep it all on very low until you’re ready to eat.

In fact I turned it off and let the soups sit and steep for probably an hour before turning it back on to low and letting it heat up again. 

The trick is to cook the greens well enough but not overcook the cauliflower and the chicken which you’ve added to the pot.

Ladle in to bowls and top with shredded Parmesan.  

B