This is the feel-good chicken soup a British chef serves every week

British chef Thomas Straker makes a version of this chicken broth for his family every week.

“Not only are soups incredibly nourishing, but they also just make you feel better,” he writes in the introduction to his debut cookbook, Food You Want to Eat. “If you eat a soup, you feel good about yourself, as well as happy and relaxed about any indulgence you may have planned for a little while later.”

A final flourish of fresh dill and a squeeze of lemon juice awakens the flavours in this bowl of comfort.

Chicken broth from Food You Want to Eat by Thomas Straker. Issy Croker

Chicken broth

Once you have mastered the basics for this recipe – a beautiful rich-flavoured stock and juicy chicken pieces – you have a blank canvas on which to create a masterpiece.

Fact: chicken broth makes you feel better. The reason for using a whole chicken in this recipe is that I’m all about nose-to-tail eating, and this really is that. Use the whole bird and you can feed yourself for an entire week, or your family for a couple of meals.

INGREDIENTS

For the broth

• 1 whole chicken, about 1.5kg
• a couple of generous glugs of extra virgin olive oil, plus more to serve
• 1 onion, quartered
• 1 carrot, cut into 2cm chunks
• 2 celery sticks, cut into 2cm chunks
• 1 leek, sliced into 2cm chunks
• 1 head of garlic, halved through its equator
• 4 thyme sprigs
• 2 rosemary sprigs
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp black peppercorns
• fine sea salt

To finish the soup

• 3 celery sticks, cut into 2cm chunks
• 3 carrots, cut into 2cm chunks
• 6 garlic cloves, peeled and bashed with the side of a blade
• small bunch (15g) of dill, coarse stalks removed
• juice of 1 lemon
• sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper

METHOD

1. Prepare the chicken by cutting it in half along the backbone and breastbone with strong scissors or poultry shears and seasoning it all over with fine salt.
2. Set a very large saucepan over a medium heat, adding a generous glug of olive oil once hot. Add the chicken halves skin-side down and cook for 5 minutes until golden. Turn the chicken halves over, then add the vegetables, garlic, herbs and peppercorns. Pour in enough water to cover the chicken, then bring to the boil.
3. Skim off any impurities with a ladle or spoon, then reduce the heat and gently simmer for 1 hour until the stock is full of flavour and the chicken is cooked through. Leave to cool for 1 hour, then carefully lift out the chicken with tongs, shred the meat from the carcass, discarding the skin and bones, and strain off the stock into a bowl.
4. Set another large saucepan over a medium heat and heat another glug of olive oil. Add the vegetables and garlic and sweat it down for 5 minutes, then add the strained stock and shredded chicken. Bring the soup to a low simmer and cook for 10 minutes until the vegetables are tender, then season to taste with salt and pepper.
5. Serve in warmed bowls with the chopped dill, a squeeze of lemon juice and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Serves 4-6

Photo:

This is an edited extract from Food You Want to Eat by Thomas Straker. Published by Bloomsbury Publishing. Photography by Issy Croker. RRP $49.99

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