So why am I so obsessed with that funky looking vegetable?
Beside the fact that it's in vogue right now thanks to people like Ina Garten and publications like Bon Appetit, I am fascinated by its subtle licorice flavor. I've never claimed to like the flavor of licorice (I steered clear of all black jelly beans in childhood) but I have always been a fan of the classic mirepoix - carrots, celery, and onion - which is somehow both hearty and delicate, and lends its fragrant flavor to countless dishes. Fennel is like a long lost relative, surfacing late in the game and finding that it actually belongs in this trio. All it does is add a little complexity, a little je ne sais quois, and an extra dimension to your cooking.
That's why I added it to my chicken pot pie recipe. And that's how I conceived this recipe for a chicken soup, which is anything but "old-fashioned." This recipe capitalizes on that hearty/delicate conundrum by using citrus to coax out the lightness in the fennel, yielding a vibrant soup you can easily eat 5 bowls of. It's been done...
This is definitely a weekend, or two-day recipe, but I save time by using the carcass of a store-bought rotisserie chicken. What a great way to use leftovers!
Ingredients:
1 rotisserie chicken or chicken carcass
2 48. oz containers chicken stock
2 bay leaves
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 yellow onions, one quartered, one diced
2 cloves garlic smashed
2 fennel bulbs, sliced, stalks and fronds reserved
5 celery stalks, 2 halved, 3 small diced
5 carrots, 2 halved, 3 small diced
2 potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/2 inch thick
1 lemon
fresh shopped chervil, or 1 Tbsp dried tarragon
salt and pepper
pinch of saffron (optional)
Directions:
Put the chicken carcass in a large pot or dutch oven and cover with water. Add garlic, bay leaves, quartered onion, halved carrots and celery, fennel stems, salt and pepper, and as much chicken stock as will fit in the pot without it boiling over (just to help the flavor along). Bring to a boil and simmer, covered, for about an hour and a half.
Turn off the heat and let cool. Strain the stock and reserve. Pick the meat from the chicken carcass and reserve. Discard the vegetables and the bones. This can be done in advance and will keep in the fridge.
In the same pot, heat the olive out in the pan and add the sliced fennel and diced onion, carrots, and celery. Saute until translucent but not brown. Add the reserved stock and supplement with more canned chicken stock. You want a full pot for your efforts. Bring to a boil. Add the potatoes and reserved chicken meat, and simmer about 10 minutes. When potatoes are tender, season with the herbs, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and saffron, if using.
Serve and enjoy!
The good news is that, according the article Bon Appetit ran, "fennel is prized by herbalists for its ability to alleviate stomach cramps and other digestive distress." So this soup trumps all other chicken soups when it comes to the perfect sick-day meal. Just have someone who loves you make it for you...you'll pay them back eventually.
4 comments:
Huh. This is so intense! My vision of chicken soup goes as this:
"large pot. Heat olive oil, and toss in fennel, garlic, carrots, celery, red onion. Sautee til soft but not squishy. Add in broth, and chicken. Throw in a pinch of rosemary, tarragon, corriander, parsley, and thyme - a little lemon or a looooottttttttt of lime if you like it Mexican style, and boil. Serve!"
Btw - the3coasts.blogspot.com (Katherine D, Krod, and myself. :)
I am sitting in an empty cold lab.
I wish I could make your soup right now!!!
Xu, I only do the long first process to mimic the taste of homemade chicken broth, which I don't have the patience to do in advance. Otherwise it's the same idea.
and I <3 the three coasts!
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