Medium difficulty 6-8 servings 30 min prep + 2 hours cooking time
Requires 1 large pot, and one skillet that can handle high heat (=cast iron or carbon steel; no teflon or ceramics, or you will ruin it and your health!)
Ingredients
1 large carrot + 1 additional carrot for later
2 onions
2-3 stalks of celery
1 leek
a dozen or more button mushrooms
800 grams of boneless chicken
chicken stock for 1.5L liquid
1L water
250 white cooking wine
a splash of cream
bay leaves
fresh thyme
salt
pepper
potatoes
Instructions
Slice the vegetables and put in a large pot with a small amount of some cooking grease
Put the pot on medium heat and gently brown the vegetables. You should see a gentle column of steam rising from the vegetables (and smell something delicious)
Quart the mushrooms and put in a skillet, sear on high heat to get rid of the water in them
Put the mushrooms with the vegetables
Cut and the chicken into mouth-sized pieces and quickly brown at medium-high heat, salt and pepper as you go
Put the chicken with the vegetables
Add wine, water, chicken stock to the pot
Add a few bay leaves
Make a bouquet garni with the thyme and a carrot (i.e. tie the thyme to a carrot with some cooking twine) – or just toss it in there if you haven’t got the twine or patience.
Bring to a simmer and let it simmer for as long as you have patience, at least 30 minutes but ideally 2+ hours.
20 minutes before serving, peel and cut potatoes and add to the soup.
Add a splash of cream
Taste and add more salt if necessary
Fish out the bouquet
Serve
Tastes even better the next day!
