Southern Heritage Cream of Chicken Soup

We’ve been listening to Arnold Wesker’s play, Chicken Soup with Barley, as it’s Radio 3’s Sunday play. It’s put us in mind of chicken soup. This is from a cookbook I picked up in a thrift store in the States, part of a series called The Southern Heritage.

1 large chicken(2kg) -or two small ones

3 ½ litres water

1 onion, quartered

1 stalk celery, halved

½ cup rice

2tbsp chopped parsley

2tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

500ml single cream

¼ cup flour

Apologies for the mix of cups and metric! Poach the chicken in the water with the onion and celery for 3 hours, uncovered. This is easily enough time for a game of Monopoly with the boy. How does he always manage to win?

Remove the chicken, and when cool, get the boy to remove all the flesh from the bones, discarding the skin and bones. Save the dark meat for his sandwiches tomorrow.

Reheat the stock and add the rice, salt and pepper and cook for 20 mins, until the rice is tender.

Slowly add the cream to the flour and whisk well until there are no lumps. Stir it into the broth and when it’s well mixed, add the torn up chicken and stir it all through. Cook for 10 minutes. The boy loves this with garlic bread.