I don't mean..."mine is pretty good." I'm talking "once you've tried a bowl of my chicken soup, you'll agree to give me a pedicure and paint my toenails just for seconds."
I'm a good cook. But there are a few things that, for whatever reason, I just have never mastered. Good gravy is one of them. Good chicken soup is another. So...I have a 5 lb chicken in the fridge, and tomorrow I want some kickass chicken soup. I've tried to make chicken soup many, many times...and let me tell you, the only ass it has ever kicked was mine. No matter what I throw into the pot, it seems to come out bland and, I'll be the first to admit, ho-hum.
I make great stuffing. I make great soups, even. Most of them are either creamy or bisques. My potato soup will make your eyes roll around in your head. My fish chowder? Pretty delicious if I do say so myself. Butternut squash bisque? I'm all over it. Carrot soup? Yeah...I got that one.
But chicken soup? I don't know why I can never get it right.
So...Before I begin to rattle the pots and pans tomorrow, and give the chopping board a workout...I thought I would consult the experts. There must be a few of you here who, to paraphrase a song, "are great chicken soup makers and you know it."
What are your secrets?
I am so tired of throwing several dollars worth of perfectly good ingredients into the stock pot and winding up with perfectly mediocre results. I acknowledge my culinary limitations. One can't be good at everything. Try my bread, or my sweet potato-pecan pie, and you'll agree to give me a pedicure.
But try my chicken soup??? You'll likely tell me I can clip my own damned toenails, and suggest I run up to the store and pick up a can of Progresso before I settle down, forlorn, with the clippers.
So...For the select few here...and I know you are out there...who truly know how to make a chicken soup that makes you smack your lips and want to slap your Mamma...cough up your secrets.
Please?
Before I waste another $10 worth of ingredients?