Friday, July 16, 2010

A Pennsylvania Treat-Chicken Corn Soup

My aunt recently had surgery and was sent home to her hubby's care. And since he's not much of a cook, I thought I would make her some soup. A pot of good home cooked soup fixes everything don't ya know. We live in the heart of Central Pennsylvania-AKA Amish Country. Around here, there's nothing better than a pot of chicken corn soup; it's a Pennsylvania favorite. During the summer months, when the corn crop is fresh, you can find a corn soup stand at every fair. But today, I'll be using corn I froze last summer that is still very sweet and yummy.


I don't use a recipe to make chicken corn soup. I just cook it up with some basic
ingredients. I start by cooking
off chickens in the pressure cooker to get my chicken base. On this particular day, I used 2 chickens. This gave me plenty of broth and extra chicken for in the freezer to use in another chicken dish on another day.




To make my broth
more flavorful,
I add chopped garlic
and a little celery.










Saute some chopped onion, and celery until slightly tender




Add the chicken broth...


And the corn...

And chicken....


Now here is where I make this soup my own. I add herbs...lots of herbs. If I make this soup in the summer, I go around my herb garden and snip off the herbs I want for the soup. But since I don't have any fresh herbs, I used those that I had dried last fall. Many folks add chopped hard boiled eggs and rivels to their soup. My family doesn't particularly care for those additions. So I add the herbs for added color and flavor.

Today, I added some basil, rosemary, sage, and parsley. Then I threw in a few bay leaves for good luck. (salt and pepper too!)

Stir and simmer until all vegetables are cooked
and flavors are married.

There's nothing left to do but....Enjoy!!

.

No comments:

Post a Comment