Wowza! Chinese Chicken Soup

Ok, the Chinese chicken soup is a huge success! It's so delicious, if I may say so myself. I came up with this recipe a few weeks ago and this is the first time I made it on purpose, as opposed to by accident, which is how I discovered it. It's a very simple recipe, but it requires quite a few different vegetables/spices, so go visit your local fruit and veggie market and tell the grocer that Elana sent you.

Here's what you'll need:

Pot of water
1 Chicken carcass/bones
1 leek
1 small bunch of parsley
3-4 green (spring) onions
3 large bulbs of fresh ginger (not three massive pieces, just three balls/arms)
1 stalk of lemongrass
salt/pepper
3 tblsp chicken soup powder
3/4 cup white wine
splash of sherry (optional)

Method:
Start with a pot of cold water and add salt, chicken carcass and chicken soup powder. Bring those to a boil white you clean the other vegetables.

Split the leek down the center and then cut the whole leek width-wise in two, so that you have two long hunks of leek. Add to the pot.

Wash and chop parsley and green spring onions. Peel all chunks of ginger and cut into smaller chunks (about 3 chunks per bulb). Add to the pot.

Cut off ends of lemongrass and then bend the stalk several times all the way from one tip to the other. The point is to bruise the stalk of lemongrass and get the flavors moving. Cut stalk in 2-3 pieces and add to the pot.

Add pepper, white wine and splash of sherry

Allow soup to continue boiling at a simmer for about 70-90 minutes (until you feel it's REALLY tasty and ready), then remove from heat.

If you are serving the soup immediately, run a strainer through the soup (or strain the soup) and remove all the large particles. Then remove the chicken from the carcass in small pieces and add back to broth.

If you are serving the next day, put the pot of soup in your fridge. The next day, skim fat off top of soup and strain the large particles from the soup. Add chicken pieces from carcass into soup, reheat and serve!

** Note!** If you can't find one or two of the vegetables for the soup, don't freak. You can still make the soup using the rest. The key, though, is to make sure you have the ginger and at least 2 more of the onion-y type veggies in there.

There you have it, folks. This is the best chicken soup I've ever made. Yummy!