Overnight Chicken Broth Turned Bulgur Soup
Posted in: Dinner Ideas, Food Photos, Lunch Ideas, Soup/Stew Ideas | 14 Comments
Friday night for dinner I "cheated." It was the end of a long week. I didn’t want to go out to dinner but I didn’t want to cook either. So I stopped by the grocery store for one of those store cooked rotisserie chickens. You know, the ones kept under the warming lights all day in the plastic containers.
Come on. . . I can’t be the only one that does this now and then. It’s a life saver and so much better then hitting a drive-thru for the family. I made a batch of creamy mashed potatoes and heated some frozen Brussel Sprouts in the microwave and Taaa daaaa! a home cooked family meal… sort of. ;)
After dinner I decided not to just through away the carcass of the chicken but make some stock. As I established in my Turkey Stock, Broth, Soup, Whatever! post awhile back I don’t know the difference between broth or stock and frankly, I don’t care. 
I do my own thing to make a flavorful soup that I like and if I break some "rules" along the way, oh well. :)
Here’s what I did and the results was delicious!
- Carcass of 3-4 pound chicken with some meat still attached
- About 25 cups of water
- 1 sweet onion halved with skin
- 1 garlic bulb halved with skin
- 1 tsp dried fennel seeds
- 1 tsp Thyme
- 1 tsp Rosemary
- 1 tsp Peppercorns
- 1/2 tsp whole cloves
- 1 tbsp kosher salt
Put all the ingredients in a large stock pot.
Cover and cook on medium high for about an hour. It should boil in about 20 minutes.
After the hour lower to a simmer and cook overnight. That’s right, overnight. I simply put the burner on the lowest setting and woke up to this. . .
It was at least 8 hours.
The next morning I shut off the heat and got my filtration system in order. I use a large strainer and the top of a cake keeper (like this one
Simply pour the entire content of the stock pot into the strainer and get your hands dirty. You need to fish through the "stuff" to find all the good pieces of chicken for the soup.
You could separate some of the broth to freeze for later use but I simply put the chicken I plucked out of the strainer back into the stock pot and added all the broth.
At this point you can do anything you want with this broth and chicken. I decided to add some bulgur and carrots, all I really had in the house on a Saturday morning before I grocery shopped for the week. :) Again.. here’s what I did..
- about 10 carrots cut in large chunks
- 1.5 cups of uncooked bulgur
Add both ingredients to the stock pot and bring to a boil. Cover and lower to a simmer. Cook for at least a half an hour and you get. . .
I then separate them into serving sizes and froze some for work lunches. :)
(Side Note: Notice the boxes in the background? FitBloggin’ has taken over my house! 1 more week until the conference! Whoo Hooo!)
So there you have it my Overnight Chicken Broth Turned Bulgur Soup. I love that I got the most out of a store bought cooked chicken that I could and although making your own broth/stock sounds hard and time consuming it’s really not. Especially when you can make it while you sleep. :)
Anybody want to share their own tips and tricks when making broth/stock? What other ingredients do you add to make it more flavorful?
Oh! and as for Nutritional Info.. it’s going to vary based on so many factors so I don’t feel comfortable post but for my fellow Weight Watchers fan I’d count 2 cups of this (what I put in each individual container) as 4 points but that’s just my estimate.
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Looks great! I buy those chickens all the time. So quick and easy.
If you are worried about leaving the stove on all night, putting the stock/broth fixins in a slowcooker overnight works great too.
Hi Roni,
It’s a great thing making your own stock, and I agree about the stock/broth thing. One thing I do is throw in some carrots, celery and ginger. After everything is strained out (sometimes cheesecloth is good), then I put the broth in the fridge overnight so that any fat congeals on top and can be spooned off for the trash. After that I make my soup, which can be anything from barley to veg. Of course, neither of us does the chef version of stock, but as long as it has tasty flavor what does that matter?
That looks so good! There is no way I would have the patience to do that, but I applaud you for your efforts! :)
Great idea Lisa – The Slow cooker would work great!
Sheri – I used to that too but I since I started removing the skin before boiling I noticed only a very small amount of fat would actually form so I started skipping it. Saves me time.
Ahhh you should try it TJ! It’s really not that bad! :)
My mom loves buying those chickens.. especially from Costco. They’ve been super cool about it and pulled one of the rotisserie for her too! I don’t know that that makes it any more “fresh”, but… ;)
Yuuuuummmm…. 8D Its too bad we are going to eat dinner at Outback tonight and that I leave for a week to see my grandparents for the week. this post makes me want to go get my chicken from costco and use and abuse it.
If you don’t want to keep your stove burner on all night, put everything in the crockpot on low heat.
F. Plvan
I do this every week, usually on Sunday. I throw a raw chicken in the crock pot, ta da! dinner. Then after dinner I de-bone, keep the rest of the meat for another meal, toss in the carcass with some more water (keeping all the juice that’s already in there). I have a bag in the freezer that we add veggies scraps too (carrot skins, celery ends, onion ends and skins, etc) and add spices, leave on low overnight. Drain in a colander. I also chill in the fridge to remove fat (since it was all cook together in the crock pot). I keep the stock in the fridge or freeze for use later. We never throw bones away now… totally a habit.
I also have a great recipe for homemade cream of chicken soup. I don’t buy any condensed creams of whatever soups anymore. The difference in taste in unreal.
http://www.tammysrecipes.com/homemade_cream_chicken_soup
Do you really use 25 cups of water? I’m not sure I have pan big enough! Looks like a really simple recipe, though. I’ve always been intimidated by the thought of making my own stock. Thanks for breaking it down, Roni?
I did but only for this post. Normally I just fill my largest pot with water. If you don’t have one you should totally invest in a stock pot. Makes all this stuff much easier.
I’m totally making this tomorrow! What a fabulous idea!