Chicken Soul Soup

There are times when you need soup, and there are times when you need Chicken Soul Soup.

This is a really nutrient-dense, collagen-rich soup that is just the ticket when you need a good hit of feel-better food. The beauty of it is that the chicken drumsticks go straight into the pot from frozen, so as they gently cook you get all that goodness from the bones, skin and connective tissue into the broth.

When the soup is cold, you’ll notice just how much collagen you’ve extracted — the broth will be wonderfully gelatinous and quite wobbly. Drumsticks also give you plenty of flavour and collagen without the amount of fat you get when poaching a whole chicken. You still get that beautiful skin and all the connective tissue, but without ending up with a very fatty broth.

And because the meat comes away from the drumsticks in lovely little sections, every bowl gets a generous amount of chicken as well as plenty of soft vegetables. It feels like a proper meal rather than a bowl of broth with a few bits floating around.

The vegetables are deliberately kept fairly simple and cooked until very soft, making this an easy soup to eat when you’re not feeling your best.

Ingredients

• 1 packet Grassland Poultry Sommerlad heritage chicken drumsticks — usually 6–7 drumsticks, approximately 1 kg
• 1 onion, finely diced
• A little Sommerlad heritage chicken fat, for cooking
• 1 leek, finely sliced
• 1–1½ cups butternut pumpkin, finely diced
• 1–2 carrots, finely diced
• 2 baby zucchini, cut into small rounds
• 1–2 cups mushrooms, finely sliced
• 1–2 tbsp fresh ginger, finely grated
• 1–2 tbsp fresh turmeric, finely grated
• 500 mls homemade chicken stock
• Approximately 500 mls water
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 lemon, zest and juice
• A good handful of fresh parsley, roughly chopped

Method

Gently cook the diced onion and sliced leek in a little chicken fat over low heat until soft. You’re not looking for colour here; just soften everything slowly.

Add the pumpkin, carrots, zucchini and mushrooms and stir everything together. Grate the fresh ginger and turmeric directly into the pot and give it another good stir.

Pour in the chicken stock and approximately 500 mls water. You want everything sitting comfortably in the liquid, with enough room for the drumsticks.

Now place the frozen chicken drumsticks directly into the soup. Put the lid on and bring everything slowly up to temperature, then reduce the heat to a very gentle simmer.

Cook for approximately 1½ hours, keeping the soup at a really gentle simmer rather than allowing it to boil hard. The chicken should be completely cooked and the vegetables very soft. Don’t worry about the vegetables becoming too soft — that’s exactly what you want for this soup.

Season lightly with salt and pepper, but save the final seasoning until the end.

Carefully remove the drumsticks from the pot and allow them to cool enough to handle. Using a fork or your fingers, gently pull the meat from the bones, removing as much as you can in those lovely little sections.

Return the chicken meat to the soup.

If you aren’t eating the soup straight away, you can return the stripped bones to the broth and let them continue to cook as the soup cools. There is still plenty of goodness left in those bones. When you’re ready to serve, simply remove the bones and discard them, or pop them into a freezer bag to use in your next batch of stock.

Finally, taste the soup and adjust the salt and pepper. Add the zest and juice of the whole lemon and a generous handful of chopped fresh parsley.

Give it a good stir and serve hot.

That’s it. A very simple chicken and vegetable soup with a rich, collagen-filled broth, tender chicken and soft vegetables. Exactly what you want when you need something nourishing, comforting and easy on the tummy.