With this cooler weather, I’m feeling soup coming on. And I have a hankering for Chicken Tortilla Soup. Yeah, maybe it’s been all the peppers I’ve been trying to use up and preserve that has me in a Mexican food mood. (Or maybe it’s just that I like Mexican food! ?).
I thought I’d start by roasting a whole chicken. This one is about 4 lbs. You could roast a larger or smaller one. I went ahead and put it in the oven this morning. Thought it was a good way to help warm up the house! Besides, I want to put it to a variety of uses before the day is over.
I seasoned it with some chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, coriander, cumin, paprika, salt and pepper, put it in the oven at 350 degrees and let it cook for about an hour. I’m looking for an internal temperature of 165 degrees.
Once done, I will let it cool and then pull it off the bone and shred it. Of course, that is, what I don’t eat on the spot! The shredded chicken is then available for tacos, quesadillas, more pepper poppers and of course the soup! I make it go a loooong way!
But I don’t stop there! From there, I’ll will use all the leftover pieces for bone broth. Put it all in a crockpot along with some chicken feet. Add 1-2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar and let it cook. I cook it for a minimum of 24 hours. I like to wait for the bones to crumble. (I’ll get to that in a minute). That can take 48 hours. You could cook it in an instapot and I hear of people having great success doing this, but I happen to like the long slow cook best. It allows for all the nutrients to be pulled out of the bones and into the broth. I’m not sure the instapot would be long enough to cause the bones to crumble.
Once done, strain the broth and it’s ready to use. I don’t anticipate needing to season it much but I will if necessary. If you don’t want to use it right away, you can refrigerate or even freeze it for later. I’ll be using if for my soup!
After you have strained the broth don’t throw out the bits and pieces if you have a dog! Since I’ve cooked it until all the bones crumble, I put them, all the cartilage, feet and any other meat or bits into my food processor and purée it into dog food. My vet even agreed that as a supplement it adds chondroitin to the dogs diet. (One is working on healing a torn ACL… poor buddy).
So there you have it. AND you can see why I chose to start my chicken early. Of course, I could have chosen to wait until this afternoon and then had roast chicken for dinner but I have so much more planned for my chicken! Besides, I’m already getting warmer this morning. Coffee helps too.
How do you use a whole chicken?