There always seem to be plenty of coughs, colds and sniffles around. Whenever one of our children are unwell the first thing we do is whip up a bowl of “chuck”. Quite simply it is fresh chicken stock/broth with fresh carrots, peas, celery and any other veg you can add to it, plus shredded pieces of chicken and white jasmine rice.
Crammed with immune boosting properties from the chicken bones and antibacterial garlic and ginger. It is rich and warming yet refreshing and incredibly cleansing. We should add, it’s what we also make for ourselves when run down too and we often increase the amount of ginger and garlic to add more heat. It takes a bit more time but is not difficult and will send any illnesses packing.
We always make sure we have all the ingredients to hand in case this is needed and often freeze old roast chicken carcasses for exactly this reason.
- 100g white rice, cooked
- 2 celery sticks, cut into large chunks
- 2 to 3 carrots, cut into large chunks
- 70g peas
- 70g sweetcorn
- 1 white onion, cut into wedges
- 2 garlic cloves, leave whole
- 3 cm ginger, cut into large slices
- 1 or 2 spring onions, sliced
- 1 chicken carcass from a roast
- Shredded chicken (taken from the carcass of the chicken)
- Start by cooking your rice. Do this your normal method/as per packet instructions.
- Next get on with making your fresh chicken stock or broth. Take your carcass and place it into a large saucepan. It needs to be big enough to make sure that the water can reach right up to the top.
- Add your onion, carrot, celery, ginger and garlic and cover everything with water.
- Place onto a high heat and bring the water to the boil. Once boiling, turn down to a simmer and leave there for a couple of hours, then turn off.
- When cooled slightly, remove the chicken carcass (making sure you get any small bones that might have fallen) and discard. You now have a wonderful, rich and wholesome stock. If you want the flavour to be slightly more concentrated and strong then increase the heat and reduce the stock by evaporating it down.
- Add your chicken pieces, peas, sweetcorn and spring onion at this stage.
- When it comes to serving, in a bowl, take a portion of your cooked fluffy white rice and add in ladles of your stock. Try and take all the bits too (all the delicious and soft carrot, peas, sweetcorn, ginger, etc). You want to create a chunky soap.
- Alternatively you can just add your rice straight into your stock mix, although I prefer to mix rice and stock last minute.
- Serve warm and watch it disappear.
Often if I don't feel like there is enough seasoning when tasting I add a small amount of Marmite and stir through to give even more depth of flavour.
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