'One Legged' Chicken Soup

Otherwise known as 'Fluebegone' soup. Or in reality, Moroccan Roast Chicken, Chickpea and Vegetable Soup.

Ok, so in an effort to be suuuuuper organised, a few Sunday's ago I decided to do a massive cook-up for the week. Our whole house had been fighting the dreaded lurgy and I was dammned if I was going to get it. Of course chicken soup is said to have properties which will assist in reducing the symptoms of a cold. Partly because of the bone broth containing anti-inflammatory properties, partly, I think because it's just so delicious and comforting. I dialled up the cold-fighting qualities of this soup by making it Moroccan inspired and adding a heap of Tumeric, which is proven to be anti-inflammatory. I also bumped up the VitC content by finishing the soup with a big squeeze of lemon and a handful of fresh parsley.

So why 'One Legged' chicken soup? Well, who can resist a roast chook? By the time I took the chicken out of the oven it smelled so damn easy I couldn't help but rip off a leg before plunging the entire chicken carcass into the boiling mass of Moroccan Veg. The name has stuck I'm afraid, so here it is. My cold-busting, heart-warming, one-legged chicken soup!

Ingredients:

• 1 whole raw chicken (you can cheat and use a pre purchased BBQ chook, you'll just need to keep it hot until its ready to go into the broth for food safety reasons)

• Whole head of cauliflower

• 3 carrots

• 1 large brown onoin

• 1/2 bunch celery

• 2 large zucchinis

• 2 400g tins chickpeas

• 3 lemons - 1 1/2 for cooking plus an extra to cut into wedges to serve

• 1/2 bunch parsley, chopped

• 1Tbsp fresh thyme chopped

• 3 Tbsp Moroccan Seasoning

• 2 Tbs Tumeric

• 2 tsp crushed garlic or 2 whole garlic cloves, crushed

• 2 litres salt reduced chicken stock (either pre-packaged or simply made up using salt reduced stock powder)

• 1 litre boiling water

• Salt & Pepper to season

• 1Tbsp olive oil

Method:

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C (200 if not fan forced).

Prepare your raw chook by patting the skin dry and seasoning with salt, pepper and thyme. I like to use Herbamare as it is a little lower sodium but ads more flavour.

Take two of the lemons and zest, reserving the lemon zest.

Cut lemons in half and place 1 1/2 inside the cavity of the chicken. Reserve the other two

Place on a greased baking tray and pop in the oven for approx 1 1/2hrs depending on weight of your chicken. Chicken is cooked when a skewer is inserted into the thickest part (usually the breast) and juices run clear. You DO NOT want to overcook as the chicken will continue to cook once placed into the broth mixture

While chicken is cooking, wash & chop all veg into reasonably small pieces, cut your cauliflower into florets and dice onion. If you have a food processor, I find the easiest way to do this is to cut the carrots and zucchinis into quarters lengthways and the celery stalks in half lengthways then put the whole lot through the food processor on the larger chopping blade. Do the zucchini first, then the carrot and celery. This means they'll be in the right order to spoon into your pot when you need to cook them. Clever huh?

Leave the onion until last and peel and cut the onion into quarter chunks, then put the onion through on the finer chopping blade. This leaves the onion at the top so you can spoon that out first.

In a large heavy bottomed pot, brown the onion in the olive oil and garlic then add carrot and celery with turmeric, moroccan spices and lemon zest. Cook until soft, then add the zucchinis and chopped cauliflower florets, cooking a little further until zucchinis and cauli are also soft.

Add the 2 litres chicken stock and chickpeas, pop the lid on and leave to simmer gently until your chicken is ready. Make sure you stir regularly to stop it from sticking to the bottom and buggering up the whole thing. This is the part where I usually crawl under a blanket on the couch with the kids and watch a movie and come back to burnt soup. Please don't to it, it's heartbreaking!!

Once your chicken is ready, remove from the baking tray, take the lemons out and set aside, remove as much skin as you can then rip off a leg and eat it. After all, it's not one-legged chicken soup if you don't right?

Once you've indulged in the deliciousness that is a roast chook leg, immerse the entire chicken carcass into the broth. At this point you may need to cover with a little more boiling water to make sure the entire chook is submerged. Squeeze the juice from the hot lemons over a sieve to remove seeds and add the juice to the soup. Reduce heat to low and simmer for a further 45mins or until the meat is falling off the bone.

Finally, using tongs remove the chicken carcass from the broth, pull off the meat, shred and place back into the pot. At this point, check to make sure it's well seasoned and add a little more salt or pepper (or even moroccan seasoning) if necessary.

To serve, spoon soup into bowls, adding a squeeze of fresh lemon and a big handful of chopped parsley.

Time saver tips:

You can cheat by simply buying the pre-chopped veg from the fresh food section of your supermarket. You can also buy a whole roast or BBQ chook from the deli section. Both of these steps will save you loads of time, but will increase the overall cost of your soup.

Mum hack:

My two aren't quite ready for the flavours of Morocco (or vegetables that they can identifiably see in anything!), so I set aside some of the carrot celery and onion to chop even finer then make a chicken noodle soup in a seperate pot using extra stock, some of the chicken meat finely shredded and broken up angel hair pasta noodles. 2 birds one stone!

This article was written by Kate Hickey for Empower360 Fitness. If you'd like more information on our online or teen bootcamp programs, head to our website www.empower360fitness.com.au or contact Kate: kate@empower360fitness.com.au