Chicken Minestrone

Ingredients

For the stock

• Chicken carcass + legs and wings
• Leek
• Celery
• Onion
• Carrots
• Garlic
• Pepper
• Water

For the soup

• 2 chicken stock cubes
• Onion
• Carrots
• Celery
• Leek
• Celeriac
• Garlic
• Tinned tomatoes
• Tin of Cannellini Beans (drained)
• Broken up angel hair spaghetti
• Oregano/Rosemary/Sage/Parsley
• Salt and Pepper

Method

1. Make the stock by boiling (or pressure cooking) the chicken carcass, legs and wings with the stock ingredients until the chicken is falling off the bone.
2. Remove the chicken carcass/legs and wings.
3. Strain the liquid into a large pan and squish the vegetables and garlic through a sieve till all the liquid is through and then discard the veg.
4. Take all the chicken off the bone and put back into the liquid with 2 stock cubes.
5. Add the chopped veg and boil for 10 more mins.
6. Add the tomatoes and cook down, seasoning to taste.
7. Add the canellini beans and the spaghetti and cook for another 5 mins till spaghetti is all cooked.
8. Add the chopped fresh herbs and finish off with a sprinkling of fresh parmesan and a dollop of creme fraiche if you like.

Spanish Chicken

I’ve tried and tried to recreate a less salty version of La Tasca’s Polla al Aijillo many times but this recipe is the closest that I have come. The original recipe was posted by canarygirl on Recipezaar but I have adapted it to my own tastes and to make it more like the La Tasca version so, credit for the basis of the recipe must go to whoever canarygirl is.

Ingredients

• 4 free range organic chicken breasts sliced about half a cm thick
• 4 cloves of garlic crushed
• teaspoon of fresh oregano (but dried will do if you can’t get fresh)
• teaspoon of fresh lemon thyme (ordinary thyme will do)
• sea salt flakes
• olive oil
• large glass of white wine
• 1 lemon

Directions

1. In a grinder or mortar and pestle grind together the garlic, the sea salt, and the herbs and the olive oil, leave for a few hours.
2. Heat a little more olive oil in a frying pan, fry the chicken pieces gently for about 8 mins, add the wine and cook down till the wine is reduced by half then add about half a pint of water and cook slowly till the water has also reduced by about half. You can always add more water and cook for longer to make the chicken super tender.
3. Squeeze the juice of the lemon over it just before serving TO TASTE!!!