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Cream of chicken soup in a bowl with a spoon and napkin

Divine Cream of Chicken Soup

The smoothest and silkiest of roast chicken soups
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Servings: 4
Ingredients Equipment Method

Ingredients
  

  • 1 roast chicken carcass
  • 1 small onion, peeled and halved
  • 1 carrot, peeled or scrubbed and halved
  • 1 stick of celery, halved
  • 1 blade of mace
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 3 oz butter , or the chicken fat made up to 3oz with butter
  • 3 oz plain flour
  • 3 1/2 fl oz double cream or 6 tablespoons
  • salt
  • black pepper
  • water

Equipment

  • 1 Pressure Cooker or a large saucepan
  • 1 Wire sieve , not a nylon mesh sieve
  • 1 Large jug
  • 2 plates or wide bowls
  • 1 medium saucepan
  • 1 stick blender or liquidiser
  • 1 wooden spoon
  • 2 metal spoons
  • 1 Flat whisk
  • scales
  • baking parchment

Method
 

  1. Put the chicken carcass with any loose bones and giblets into the pressure cooker or large pan. Add the vegetables, bay leaf and mace. Press everything down firmly with your hand.
    1 roast chicken carcass, 1 small onion, peeled and halved, 1 carrot, peeled or scrubbed and halved, 1 stick of celery, halved, 1 blade of mace, 1 bay leaf
    A chicken carcass in the pressure cooker
  2. Add cold water until the carcass is just covered. Put the lid on the pressure cooker, bring to high pressure and cook for one hour. If using the pan, cover and bring to the boil then simmer on as low a heat as possible for two-and-a-half hours.
    water
  3. Let the pressure drop naturally, and then open the cooker and strain the contents into the sieve over the jug. Tip the solid contents into one of the plates or bowls.
  4. Cover the liquid and let both liquids and solids cool. The liquid can be refrigerated as soon as it is cool enough. Before the solids get too cold, strip the meat from the remains into the other clean plate or bowl. Make sure you get every last bit! Discard the remains, including the vegetables and spices and refrigerate the meat.
  5. Once the liquid is cool enough for the fat to have solidified on top, you can carry on. This will take some hours so you could leave it overnight.
  6. Remove the stock and the meat from the fridge. Skim the solidified fat from the top of the stock. You can use this for the roux later, or freeze it to make superb roast potatoes in the future.
  7. Put the stock into the medium saucepan. Put the meat into the jug or the liquidiser and add a few tablespoons of the stock so that it will blend. Now put the stock on a high heat and boil it hard to reduce it.
  8. Meanwhile, blend the meat to a paste. Remove the paste to a clean bowl or plate. Set up the sieve over the jug and then rub the paste through the sieve with the metal spoon. Don't forget to scrape the underneath of the sieve with another, clean, metal spoon.
    Sieving cooked chicken to make a paste
  9. Once sieved, add the meat paste to the boiling stock and continue to boil and reduce the whole down until you have 2 pints or just under. If you go too far, just top up to 2 pints with water. Add the cream to the stock and leave it all in the jug.
    3 1/2 fl oz double cream
  10. Now make your roux for the velouté. Wipe out the saucepan. Melt the butter, or chicken fat and butter, and then using the flat whisk, mix in the flour until smooth and cook the mixture gently for a minute or two.
    3 oz butter, 3 oz plain flour
  11. Add the hot stock mixture, ladleful by ladleful, whisking to keep the mixture smooth and keeping the heat low. Once it is all added, switch to the wooden spoon and keep stirring and raise the heat to medium. Soon the soup should develop a silken texture and be just thick enough to coat the back of your spoon.
    chicken soup coating the back of a wooden spoon
  12. Check the seasoning and add salt as needed. Add just a turn of black pepper – you don't want it to mask the chicken flavour. Now let the soup simmer for a few minutes to cook the flour and then it is ready to eat!
    salt, black pepper
    Finished cream of chicken soup

Notes

Don't forget to cover the surface of any uneaten soup with baking parchment to prevent a skin from forming.
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