Chicken Soup with Roasted Vegetables

This is a winter staple. A dark, rich variation on tradition. A bowl of this with a loaf of bread, and you've got a wonderful, hearty meal.

Ingredients (7 quarts)

• 6+ Carrots
• 3+ Onions
• 1 qt Tomatoes (or ~6 fresh tomatoes)
• 1+ lbs Green Beans
• 2+ bunches Celery
• 2+ bunches Parsley
• 2+ cobs Corn
• 2+ heads Garlic
• A good palmful each of fresh thyme, fresh rosemary and fresh sage
• Peppercorns
• Bay leaves
• 1 Whole Chicken
• 5 lbs chicken feet

Directions

Day 1

1. Heat the oven to 325°
2. Remove giblets and neck from chicken and set aside
3. Roast the chicken until done, depending on size between 1 and 1½ hours
4. Remove the chicken and let it cool
5. Once the chicken is cool enough, remove the meat. Save everything else remaining. Break apart the meat and refrigerate
6. Take the carcass, skins, giblets and any old carcasses or chicken parts that you've saved throughout the year and roast them. You want the carcasses to be very, very dark but not burnt!
7. Into 2 gallons of cold water, add the roasted carcasses and the chicken feet, make sure to deglaze the roasting pan to get everything
8. Peel 1 onion and add it whole. Scrub, but do not peel, 2 carrots, cut into large chunks and add to the pot. Trim the leaves off of 1 bunch of celery, bag up and refrigerate the leaves, chop the celery into large chunks and add to the pot
9. Make a cheescloth bag of one head of garlic unpeeled, a good palmful of fresh thyme, a good palmful of fresh rosemary, a palmful of fresh sage leaves, one bunch of flat leaf parsley, 6-8 bay leaves and a palmful of pepper corns. Tie up the bag and add it to the water
10. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat to low, cover and simmer for several hours skimming as needed. After an hour or so, uncover the pot and continue to cook until you have ~2 gallons of broth remaining. The longer the stock cooks, the darker and richer it will become
11. Strain the solids out of the broth pressing to get all the juices. Strain again through cheesecloth. Let the broth cool overnight

Day 2

12. The next day, remove any fat that has risen to the top of the broth and begin to reheat
13. Turn on your oven's broiler. In succession add the vegetables allowing them to char a bit, stirring or turning over as needed. This is not to cook the vegetables, but only to brown them. Once each is done, set aside
    • For the carrots, scrub them but do not peel. Brown them whole then cut them into largish discs, ~1" thick
    • For the onions, peel them and cut them into large chunks
    • If you are beginning with fresh tomatoes, you can roast them but you'll want to peel them afterwards. We use whole tomatoes we have canned and do not roast them
    • Wash and trim the green beans, brown them and then cut into 1" lengths
    • Trim the leaves off the celery and set aside as we will use them. Cut the stalks into 1" lengths and brown
    • Roast the corn cobs whole. Once cool, remove the kernels
    • Peel the garlic and roast the cloves whole
14. Add the roasted vegetables to the broth. Add the tomatoes (if not roasted), chop and add the remaining bunch of parsley and saved celery leaves. Add the cooked chicken
15. Once everything is added, bring it all to a boil. Add salt and pepper and adjust seasonings
16. Fill your jars leaving a 1" headspace. Wipe, lid and ring
17. Pressure can at 11 lbs for 1½ hours (90 minutes)

Notes