Rustic leftover chicken vegetable soup

Today we are going to take a look at how you can make a delicious, rustic-style chicken vegetable soup from scratch using leftover cooked chicken.

To make this work you need a leftover whole, fully cooked roasted or rotisserie chicken that still has around half or more of its chicken on it.

Ingredients:

1 leftover whole roasted or rotisserie chicken

900 ml low sodium chicken broth

water

1-2 carrots sliced

1 onion sliced

3-4 baby bok choys (soaked, trimmed and sliced)

4 red hot chili peppers

1-2 tablespoons minced garlic

1 tablespoon MSG (I think MSG is a great flavour enhancer, but if you are worried about it you can substitute for more salt)

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1 tablespoon black pepper

salt to taste

side noodles (optional)

This is what we used in this case but you can add many other vegetables such as potato or celery both of which you would add when you add the carrots or baby spinach leaves which you would add around when you add the bok choy

To begin, place the leftover chicken whole with any bones and skin in a pot and add 900 ml of low sodium chicken broth.

Then add just enough water to just cover the chicken.

Bring the broth and water to a boil, cover and reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer for one hour.

After the chicken has simmered in the liquid for an hour carefully remove the chicken fully from the pot and place in a bowl. Leave any chicken that has already fallen off the bones in the developed broth. Use a strainer to take out any small bones that may be in the broth.

Using forks (watch out as the chicken will at first be very hot) rip all the meat and skin off the bones and place it back into the broth.

Then add the carrots and onion along with all the seasonings, the soy and fish sauce and the garlic, stir and cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes.

Then add the boy choy and the hot chili peppers. You want to slice the peppers down the middle so they are intact but the broth can get inside them.

Stir, cover and simmer for another 10-15 minutes. If at any point you think the soup is getting too thick you can add small amounts of water as needed.

Stir again before serving.

This rustic soup is perfect served with a crusty French bread or garlic bread.

It is also nice with some noodles made on the side added to the bowl.

Enjoy!