It’s soup season again. Green Bow Farm, where we get most of our meat and eggs, has started to do dry-aged chickens, which was the perfect excuse to make the Smitten Kitchen recipe I’d been eyeing since it was first posted, well after cabbage season here had ended. The roasted chicken on its bed of cabbage was quite delicious, but it won’t replace my usual method of roasting on a rack because ours is a family that loves pan sauce and gravy and we’d probably rather have that on steamed vegetables and mashed potatoes than having all the goodness end up just in the cabbage.
As usual, we only ate part of the chicken the first night and I had some raw cabbage that didn’t fit in the cast iron skillet from the night before as well as a lot of leftover mashed potatoes because I got carried away at the farmers market, as usual, when buying. It was the night of the first presidential debate and I knew my mental health would not allow me to watch, so instead I turned my attention to making a soup that I hoped would taste like Thanksgiving dinner in a bowl, albeit with chicken instead of turkey.
I took the meat off the bones and set aside then used the carcass to make stock in the Instant Pot—the usual onion, carrot, celery with bay leaves, peppercorns, thyme and parsley. I cooked for about an hour I think and that was sufficient.
Then I set about trying to make it taste like Thanksgiving. I cleaned out the pot, added more onions, celery and carrots to sauté and then added fresh sage and dried poultry seasoning. The chicken, cabbage and leftover mashed potatoes went in with the chicken stock and after a 10 minute stint at high pressure, dinner was served. The family agreed that it was a keeper and it’s an extremely adaptable recipe, fit for any vegetables you have on hand. The potatoes aren’t necessary either, we just had them around. You could use rice, wild rice, pasta, millet, farro, quinoa, etc. The sage and poultry seasoning are what really lend that special flavor so they’re the only things I’d say are non-negotiable for this particular soup.
A year later I modified the recipe to include fonio, a tiny gluten-free grain in the millet family. It cooks so quickly that you can add it in raw. I sautéed it with my onion (or in this case, leek), carrot and celery. It has a very delicate flavor and thickens beautifully, adding a nice body to the soup without being too thick.
INGREDIENTS
To Prepare ahead:
2-4 c cooked chicken, diced or shredded as you prefer into spoon-sized pieces
When you’re ready to cook:
1 onion, any size, diced
2-6 stalks celery, diced
3-5 carrots, diced
Large handful fresh sage leaves washed and minced
1-2 tsp poultry seasoning, or to taste (or whatever amounts of dried thyme, sage, rosemary you prefer)
1-2 cups raw cabbage, chopped into bite-sized pieces or another vegetable—riced cauliflower works well
Any amount leftover mashed potatoes or cooked grain or 1 c. uncooked fonio
Cooked chicken from above
White wine or champagne or vinegar to taste
DIRECTIONS
- Put the oil in the instant pot and turn onto sauté mode. Add the onions, celery and carrots and cook until softened
- Add the fresh and dried herbs and stir until fragrant
- Add the grain or potatoes, cabbage (if using) and the stock or stock/water combination. Add maybe a teaspoon of salt (if your stock is unsalted), you may need more later
- Cook at high pressure for 5-10 minutes then let release naturally
- Stir in the cooked chicken and frozen riced cauliflower (if using)
- Taste and correct seasoning
- Serve and expect smiles of delight
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