Praised Chicken Soup with Rice

The other day, while browsing the internet I came across a Sexy, Sensual Lady who invaded my senses with her words and incredible looking food. Her name? Nigella Lawson. Ah yes, you may now know what I mean when I say that her voice just invades your brain...

Well one of the (many) YouTube videos that I watched of her really caught my attention. About half way through the video she started describing her mothers Praised Chicken, and this dish just twisted itself into the foodie fantasy part of my brain.

This Dish is beautiful and I just had to make my own version of it, I hope you love it.

 

 Praised Chicken Soup with Rice

4 chicken legs or 1 whole chicken, ( if using a whole chicken then be sure to crack the breast bone so the chicken is flattened), trim excess fat, keep skin.

olive oil
 
2 Garlic cloves crushed

100 ml red wine

1'2 white onion, sliced

3 carrots (peeled & cut into buttons)
 
2 stalks celery (sliced)

Cold Water

1 heaping tsp or a few big pinches :D ( give or take to your preference) Italian Herb Mix (Marjoram, Rosemary, Sweet Basil, Thyme, savory, sage, oregano)

1 bunch Parsley stems, bunched up and held together in 1 small rubber band. 

13 red pepper corns ( of course I just like the number 13!) 

Rice, cooked

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Method

 

1) Get out a large pot (with a lid) that can fit your chicken nicely. Put the oil in the pan to heat, then add one peeled garlic, let garlic cook, smoothing it in the oil to flavor the oil. Put chicken in the pot breast side down and brown the chicken for a few minutes. 

2) Still over a vigorous heat add the wine to the pan and let it simmer for a bit and bubble down a little before adding the onions, carrots, celery and your second garlic clove.
 

3) Pour in enough cold water to just barely cover the chicken, though the very top of it might poke out, then pop in the parsley bouquet, and your herbs If you need more water add some more, but do not add too much or your finished broth will be too watery.
 

4) Bring to a boil, put on the lid, turn the heat to very low (I put it down to about 3 on my stove, also the pot I use is a special metal pot and gets VERY hot uniformly.) and leave to cook for 1½ hours stirring ocasionaly, then leave it to sit on the burner with the heat off, but the lid still on, for the remaining 20–30 minutes.

5) Remove chicken from the soup and place on a small platter, remove the skin from the chicken and take 2 forks. With the fork gently shred the chicken into pieces, the chicken should just flake apart beautiful with minimal effort.

6) In each bowl but some Rice, chicken and a ladle full or two of  veggies and broth in each bowl, as you go. 

** I made 2 pots of rice, 1 with sweet black rice and the other with white basmati rice, then I mixed the two and the rice is a beautiful deep purple color and it is SOO much more healthy than just the white rice :) 

This Soup is so incredible, Let me know how you liked it!

Remember to Comment Subscribe and Enjoy!

xoxo, RainSmurf