Not Your Momma's Chicken Soup: Another use of leftover rotisserie chicken

My family really loves Costco rotisserie chicken - at $4.99 - there isn't a lot that I don't like about it either, except leftover chicken, stuck to the bone a couple days after it was delicious, moist and fresh out of the rotisserie.

One thing I do with leftover chicken is to turn it into Curried Chicken Salad or sometimes the Mexican Roasted Tomato Soup with Corn and Chicken. But neither of those take advantage of the entire chicken carcass itself - so I came up with another use of a leftover rotisserie chicken.

I call it "Not Your Momma's Chicken Soup" mainly because I am cheating when I make it. Yes, I make a chicken stock, but I start out with some and just flavor it up a bit with more ingredients. My kids LOVE this soup, my mom-in-law will take down a bowl or two, and when I'm tired, pulling a frozen container out of my freezer always is a small cooking miracle. It is really good, simple to put together, and worth the bit of effort to make it.

Not Your Momma's Chicken Soup
Serves 8

For the stock
1 quart chicken stock
1 quart water
2 carrots, whole peeled
3 celery stalks, whole
1 large onion, outer skin removed
3 garlic cloves (optional)
1 bay leaf
1 leftover rotisserie chicken carcass (meat, bones, skin all good)

For the soup
3 carrots, diced
3 celery stalks diced
1 large onion, diced
Salt and pepper to taste
Chopped parsley (optional)

In a large pot, put in chicken stock, water, carrots, celery stalks, onion, bay leaf, garlic cloves (optional), and chicken. Bring to a boil and allow to simmer, covered, about 20 minutes. Remove chicken carcass from broth and set aside to cool, so that you can remove the remaining meat and shred it.

Placing a strainer over another pot, pour the stock into the pot so that you remove all the random bits of cooked veggies, bits and pieces of chicken and the bay leaf. Into the newly strained stock, add your freshly chopped carrots, celery, and onion. Also add the chicken meat leftover from the carcass, that you have easily removed from the chicken. Season with a bit of salt and pepper.

Bring the soup to a boil, and allow to simmer, covered about 20 minutes, until vegetables are tender.

Serve some and freeze some so you always have some on hand.

Printable recipe