Silly Yak Bake Talk: Home Made Broth and Soups!

We had a wonderful Gluten Free meal tonight called Curry Chicken and I wanted to share the recipe! First, I want to talk about the ingredients that went into the meal, one being the home made chicken broth, the other a home made cream of chicken soup made from the chicken broth.  Whether you are GF or not home made chicken broth is an excellent thing to make!  Secondly, I will give the recipe for the GF meal.  This meal takes some planning but once you become accustomed to making broth and home made soups this habit will be hard to break!  And you won't want to because Home made stock and soups are so delicious and hold many health benefits!

Home Made Chicken Broth

Chicken broth not only tastes good but is highly nutritious! Making broth is one of those lost arts. (see THIS article for more information).  I make chicken broth at least once a week.  I try very hard not to waste any food in our home, so when I made a whole chicken for dinner I utilize as much of it as I can.  For one of our weekly meals I put a small chicken in the crock pot in the morning . I stuff the chicken with onions, celery and throw a carrot in for flavour.  I put it on high from about 8am-12pm then turn it on low until dinner.  Once our meal is done, the chicken in picked off the bone and saved. The bones and the giblets are added to the crock pot along with the left over drippings from the chicken I cooked for dinner, and any other steamed veggies I had for that meal.  Sometimes I add more onion and a bay leaf.  I fill the crock pot up with cool water and put some vinegar in it (maybe about 2 tbsp).  I allow this to soak for an hour.  The vinegar will break down the chicken bones so that the nutrition contained in the bones makes its way to the broth. I then put the crock pot on high until I go to bed.  Before I go to bed I set the crock pot to low until morning. I strain the broth with a mesh strainer into a glass bowl and throw out the bones and anything else that is not apart of the broth.  This gives me a nice savory, rich broth, which also has no added sodium (salt)!  I wait for the broth to cool and place it either into the fridge for soup that week or the freezer for future use.  FYI: The more congealed your chicken broth the more nutrition packed it is!  The congealing indicates that the process has drawn the nutrition out of the bones. 

Gluten Free Cream of Chicken Soup 

This is my own recipe, feel free to use and pass on!

Ingredients:

6 cups of chicken stock

1 cup of 1%, 2% milk or heavy cream

1 tsp onion powder

2 cloves of garlic

2 cups of chicken cut up (I used the chicken I had left over from the above meal)

3 tbsp of arrowroot flour or corn starch dissolved in a 1/4 cup or so of water

1/2 to 1 cup of cheddar cheese (if so desired)

Instructions:

1.  Place the chicken stock, milk, chicken pieces, onion powder & garlic into a stock pot and heat until boiling.

2. Pour arrowroot and water into the stock mixture, stir until thickened to desired consistency.  If you need to add more arrowroot mixture go ahead and make more!

3.  Add in cheese if you like!

** You can add anything to the stock mixture, like celery, onion or mushrooms.

** You can serve this soup as a nice lunch or add to a dinner time dish!

** You can also freeze this soup in 2 cup glass containers for future use/

Curry Chicken

Ingredients:

4 chicken breasts cut up into cube like peices 

2 cups Cream of Chicken Soup

1 cup mayo

1 clove garlic; minced

2 Tbsp of lemon juice, fresh or in the bottle

2 tbsp of curry (more or less depending on taste)

Instructions:

1. Cook chicken in coconut oil (or olive oil) on a stove top pan (I use a stainless steel frying pan). Drain excess water

2. Mix together cream of chicken soup, mayo, garlic, lemon juice and curry.

3.  Pour mixture in with chicken and allow to simmer for a half hour or so.  

4.  Serve with a side dish of mini potato, quinoa or rice, and of course some steamed or raw veggies!

Curry Chicken! YUM :)

Left over Cream of Chicken Soup, I froze for future use!