Cream of Chicken Soup

Adapted from James Beard’s Fireside Cook Book, this homemade cream of chicken soup is gentle and soothing in its flavor, deeply comforting and satisfying.  While Nourished Kitchen adaptation includes more vegetables and more egg yolks than the original, you’ll find that either version provides that beautiful, filling nourishment that can even satisfy the soul on a chilly, rainy autumn afternoon.

Ingredients:

• 1 whole pasture-raised stewing chicken, about 3 to 4 pounds
• 1 leek
• 2 or three whole cloves
• 5 or 6 stalks of celery, including leaves
• 3 or 4 large carrots, including tops
• 1 medium yellow onion, including top
• 2 tablespoons butter 
• 6 egg pastured yolks, beaten
• 2 cups heavy cream
• unrefined sea salt, to taste (I added in some chicken bullion for added taste...need a bit for flavor -H)
• minced fresh chives or parsley, to serve
• I also added some potato starch to give it some thickness..was too soupy for my likes

Equipment:

• stockpot
• cast-iron skillet
• food processor

Method:

1. Rinse the chicken thoroughly and pat it dry before placing it in your stock pot, covering it completely with fresh, clean and very cold water (about one and one-half gallons).
2. Stud the leek with whole cloves, and place it in the stock pot along side the stewing chicken.  Add the celery leaves, onion top and carrot tops to the water.
3. Slowly simmer the clove-studded leek, celery leaves, onion top and carrot tops in the water, uncovered, until the chicken is completely cooked and tender to the bone, about two hours.
4. Once the chicken is tender, remove it from the the stockpot and allow it to cool.  Remove the bay leaves, celery leaves, onion top and carrot tops from the broth, straining it if necessary.  Discard the vegetable matter, but continue simmering the broth, uncovered, while you prepare the remaining ingredients.
5. As the chicken cools, prepare the vegetables by peeling and mincing the carrots and mincing the onion and celery stalks as well.
6. Melt the butter in a cast iron skillet until it foams, and toss the minced vegetables into the pan.  Fry the vegetables in butter until they become fragrant and tender, about five minutes.  Remove them from the heat and allow them to cool.
7. Once the chicken has cooled, remove its meat, saving the bones to roast for another round of stock.
8. Place the chicken meat and cooled vegetables into a food processor and pulse until they’re finely ground.  If you have no food processor, you can mince the chicken and vegetables finely.
9. Stir the vegetables and chicken meat back into the simmering broth and turn off the stove.
10. Temper the beaten eggs by stirring a spoonful of broth into the eggs, then pouring the mixture of eggs and broth into the simmering soup.
11. Gently stir two cups of heavy cream into the broth and serve, dressed with minced fresh herbs and seasoned with unrefined sea salt.

YIELD: one gallon soup to feed about eight people.

TIME: about two and a half hours.

VARIATION: If you are sensitive to dairy, consider replacing the butter with coconut oil and the heavy cream with coconut milk for an alternative.

From: http://nourishedkitchen.com/homemade-cream-of-chicken-soup/