Put That Stock To Work

Yup, I'm still here!  I know it's been a while.  Things have been busy, we're renovating!  My husband is a carpenter and we are finally getting around to doing some work on our own house.  We're (you like how I say WE:) ) painting, tiling and replacing in our laundry room and main floor bathroom.  On the weekend we had a party, at least that's what we called it to get my Mom and Step-Dad over.  Little did they know it was a Painting Party:)  The reno is moving along well, I can do laundry again shouldn't be to much longer and we'll have a new shower.With all of that going on and me trying to get healthy again not much went on in my kitchen.

Last week I made stock and planned on making this soup, but I got sick.  I ended up bagging all of the stock and tossed it in the freezer.  This recipe uses 8 cups of stock so I made one large bag and two smaller 4 cup bags.  Today, I was back to work and feeling pretty good so I took the stock out of the freezer and made my soup. 

What I liked about this recipe is that you give the stock an extra kick by poaching bone-in chicken breasts in the stock. It was also very filling with chicken, sausage, chickpeas, pasta and potatoes just one bowl of soup is a complete meal.

Chicken Chorizo Soup

Ingredients

·       8 cups homemade or low-sodium chicken stock

·       2 bone-in chicken breasts, skin removed

·       2 bay leaves

·       1 leafy sprig flat-leaf parsley

·       2 tbsp olive oil

·       4 oz chorizo sausage, diced

·       1 onion, finely chopped

·       1 medium carrot, diced

·       1 medium potato, peeled and diced

·       2 cloves garlic, minced

·       1 tsp smoked paprika

·       ½ cup dry sherry

·       2 oz spaghetti, broken into 2-inch pieces

·       ½ tsp each salt and freshly ground black pepper

·       1 can (540 mL) chickpeas, drained and rinsed

·       ⅓ cup finely chopped parsley

Directions

1. In a large saucepan, combine stock, chicken breasts, bay leaves and parsley sprig. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer, partially covered, for 20 minutes or until chicken breasts are no longer pink inside. Remove chicken breasts from stock and set aside to cool slightly.

2. When chicken breasts are cool enough to handle, remove meat from bones and shred meat finely. Set aside.

3. In a large Dutch oven, heat oil over medium heat. Add chorizo; cook, stirring, for 3 to 5 minutes or until chorizo is starting to brown and has rendered some of its fat. Add onion, carrot and potato. Cook, stirring for 5 to 7 minutes or until onion is softened but not brown. Add garlic and paprika; cook, stirring, for 1 minute or until fragrant.

4. Add sherry. Bring to a boil, stirring to scrape up any browned bits from bottom of pot. Boil for 2 minutes or until sherry has almost all evaporated.

5. Strain stock into Dutch oven, bring to a boil over high heat. Add spaghetti, salt and pepper. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer, covered, for 8 to 10 minutes or until potato and spaghetti are tender.

6. Stir in reserved chicken meat and chickpeas. Simmer, uncovered, over medium-high heat for 2 minutes for flavours to blend; stir in parsley. Taste and add more salt and pepper if necessary. Ladle into warm soup bowls.

ENJOY!