Chicken soup is a traditional and classic side dish or wholesome meal worldwide. Though grandma needed so much time to make the soup, today you can get readymade chicken broth in the supermarket. But we love to prepare our own chicken broth at home.
Yeah, this is an ideal idea to make the chicken broth by simmering the chicken first and storing the broth and shredded chicken next. It can be a great base for your favorite chicken paninis, chicken noodle soup, chicken salad, and more dishes.
Pre-cooking chicken for soup makes your task easy and helps you enjoy variable dishes. Let’s know the perfect way of pre-cooking chicken with a bonus soup recipe!
Best Way Of Pre Cooking Chicken For Soup
This is a very simple and easy recipe. In this recipe, you need to use a few basic ingredients and follow some simple steps.
Ingredients:
A Whole Chicken: Take a whole chicken with skin to make a flavorful chicken broth for the chicken soup. It keeps the meat juicy and will make the soup juicy and appealing.
Carrot: Pick about 1-pound fresh carrots and peel them into small slices.
Onion: Add a large size white onion to increase the flavorsome of the chicken
Celery: As a vegetable or herb, celery is the best option to add to the simmering whole chicken, enhancing the soup’s nutritional value.
Black Pepper is a good addition to make the chicken tasty and flavorful.
Instruction To Cook Chicken
- Take a large stockpot so that you can place the whole chicken with other ingredients.
- Place the whole chicken into it and cover it with 1 gallon of cold water. Cover the pot with a lid for 30-minutes.
- Add carrot slices, whole celery, onion, bay leaves, and black peppercorns into the chicken pot and cover, and simmer it for the next 1-hour.
- Leave it to boil on medium-low heat. Simmer until the chicken is cooked completely.
- Strain the broth after one and a half hours. Then reserve the broth for chicken soup.
- When the chicken is cool enough, remove the skin, shred the meat into bite-size pieces, and prepare it for your chicken soup or chicken noodle soup.
Why Should You Simmer A Full Chicken?
If you don’t gather the courage to simmer a whole chicken, I would like to ensure you that if you follow the above steps, you will get a perfect chicken at first. Why the whole chicken? Why not shred cooked chicken pieces? Do you leave the skin of the chicken on?
The author of Modern Jewish Cooking, “my grandma was coached me from the first time for making the chicken soup and subscribed me clear golden broth called Yiddish for the perfect soup.” This golden broth only can be gained from a whole chicken.
The golden broth can be achieved by slowly simmering a full chicken with skin and vegetables until the chicken bone falls off. Chicken skin makes the soup greasy, rich, and flavorful. You can get full-bodied energy from a whole chicken soup that mainly comes under the skin.
When Do You Add The Salt?
You need to add the salt at the end of your chicken’s simmer. Before removing the stockpot from the heat, you can add salt if you will store it for next time. If you make the soup instantly, you must wait to shred the chicken, chop the vegetables, and return all items to the soup pot for soup making. When you place everything into a new pot for soup, stir a teaspoon of salt and taste the soup.
If you like to add more salt, you can add it to your taste. This trick makes your chicken soup more appealing to have.
How Long Should You Simmer The Whole Chicken?
Some people think it doesn’t need much time to simmer a full chicken. But I found a wide range of time to cook the whole chicken for the perfect golden chicken soup. I think 1 hour and 30 minutes are the best time to boil a chicken.
Experts chefs and, according to the community cookbooks, sometimes you need to simmer the chicken overnight in low heat until it becomes tender and falls off its bones. But mainly, the simmering time of a full chicken depends on the size.
What Should You Notice During Simmering The Chicken?
You don’t need to worry if the chicken is floating in the liquid while cooking. When the stockpot is covered partly, the top will boil wonderfully. You should flip it for few times during simmering.
You also need to notice some scummy foam collecting from the surface of the liquid in the first half an hour of cooking time. As the foam clusters together, skim it off using a wide and flat spoon. The foam isn’t harmful, but it makes the soup better.
How To Store Leftover Pre-Cooking Chicken Broth And Shred Chicken?
You can store the leftover pre-cooked chicken in the refrigerator if you want.
According to the USDA, chicken is fragile food that should be frozen within two hours after cooking. It is safe for next time to consume or reheat.
How to freeze?
- Let the broth and shredded chicken cool at room temperature to freezing up. Take a freezer-friendly container for broth and a freezer-friendly zip-lock bag for shredded chicken.
- Now transfer both items to the storekeepers.
- Remove the most air from the bag by pressing on it.
- Cover the lid of the container tightly so that the moisture of the broth keeps well.
- You can freeze both of the items for more than 6 months.
- If you don’t want to freeze them for a long time, you must finish them within a week.
Bonus Point: How To Make Chicken Soup?
When you have pre-cooking chicken for soup, you can enjoy your chicken soup when you want. It just takes a few minutes. Below has a classic chicken soup recipe.
Ingredients:
- Unsalted butter: 2 tablespoon
- White onion: 1 (Medium & Diced)
- 3 medium carrots sliced or peeled
- Celery sliced: 2-cups
- Garlic cloves: 2-minced
- Chicken broth: 8-cups
- Salt as taste
- Ground pepper as taste or ½ teaspoon
- Shredded chicken: 4-cups
- Fresh parsley: 2 tablespoon
- Lemon juice: 1 tablespoon
Instructions:
- Set a large pan over medium heat and put the butter to melt.
- Add onions, carrots, celery, and garlic. Then cook them until tender
- Whisk the chicken broth and season as to your taste with salt and ground pepper.
- Mix shredded chicken and cook it for 10-minutes until the carrots are tender
- Remove the soup from the heat and add parsley and lemon juice. Season with salt and ground pepper to your taste, and serve warm.
Nutrition Of The Chicken Soup
- Calories: 283 kcal
- Protein: 43g
- Sodium: 1577mg
- Fiber: 1g
- Calcium: 52mg
- Iron: 2mg
Recipe Notes By Experts:
- If you don’t have a large size pot to simmer the whole chicken, you can cut the chicken into some pieces with bone and skin.
- If you want to make chicken noodle soup, you can add boiled noodles or pasta.
- If you freeze up the broth and shredded chicken, keep it out for at least 30-minutes ago before making the soup.
- Boil the chicken slowly on low heat taking time.
- You shouldn’t skip out on adding the vegetables at first. They need time to make it soft and add the best flavor.
FAQs:
1. Can You Cook Chicken And Reheat It?
Chicken is one type of meat, and you are allowed to reheat it safely two or three times. When you need to reheat the chicken, it is very important to keep in mind that you heat it perfectly.
2. Can You Add Cold Cooked Chicken Into Hot Soup?
If you have cold-cooked chicken, you have to keep it at room temperature for 30 minutes. If you are in a hurry or forget to keep it at room temperature, you can put it to rest until you prepare other ingredients for soup and then add it to the soup.
3. Is It Safe To Pre-Cook Chicken For Soup?
Yes, this process is perfect for making chicken soup or chicken noodle soup. After a long time of cooking the chicken, the bacteria will kill, and you can add them to the soup next time without any issue.
4. Should You Pre-Cook Chicken Before Adding Them To Soup?
Experts chefs always suggest cooking the chicken in a separate pan to make a healthy soup. This is not only safe but also healthy and keeps the taste, color, and flavor very appealing.
5. Is It Ok To Reheat Cooked Chicken In Microwave?
Yes, it is safe and right to reheat chicken in the oven if it has been stored after cooking for a few days.
Final Words!
Do you love chicken soup? Then I am sure you must love ours above the way or pre-cooking chicken for soup. Yes, I am also sure that this blog will be very helpful for you; you have a lot of silly tricks that will make your task easy and help you enjoy your beloved healthy soup when you desire.
