Cock-a-leekie Soup

Or chicken soup for the soul - even when it's still warm outside

Grant’s had a touch of a head cold over the weekend. He reckons it’s because I insist on having the air conditioning on and he gets cold (hello, it’s still over 20C at night and I’m at that age where I have an internal combustion system rather than an internal thermostat). I tend to think it’s more that practical matters have been keeping him awake a tad more than usual: Sarah moving back to the Sunshine Coast, Sarah getting a rental to move into, Sarah moving into the rental, selling the townhouse in Hervey Bay (spoiler alert it went really quickly), the mechanics of getting her furniture out and down here to her new place. Yes, there’s a theme to these worries and it starts with S and ends with H.

While it’s all happened the way it’s needed to, when it’s needed to (of course I had a spreadsheet - I’ve project managed too many relocations in my previous day jobs not to have), on Sunday - after a day where he had to drive up and back in a removal truck to get said furniture - the head cold really hit him quite hard.

There was nothing for it but chicken soup - even though autumn hasn’t even begun to think about visiting.

Everyone has a favourite chicken soup and while I call mine cock-a-leekie, technically I’m not sure that it’s authentic, mainly because I don’t add prunes. Not because I dislike them, but because I think they’re unnecessary and I can’t get my head around fruit in soups. They do add a sweetness to the end product though, so feel free to add a handful if you like - but at the end as a garnish. It does however have the two major ingredients to cock-a-leekie: chicken and leeks.

The Scots would traditionally have used an “auld boiling fowl” – something which isn’t available at my local supermarket – but many recipes I found used chicken carcass or chicken wings which are roasted before they’re boiled to give a deeper flavour. To be honest I really couldn’t be faffed with all of that. I find the flavour you get from a good free-range chicken is absolutely fine - plus you get leftover meat for something else. If you want to keep the cost down or if you’re just making soup for two, a few four chicken drummies will do the job perfectly well.

Traditionally cock-a-leekie is simple on the veg – leeks and carrot are pretty much it – although I will use potato, parsnips and turnips during the colder months mainly because it makes the soup go further and they’re vaguely Scottish veg. You know, tatties and neeps?

As for the carbs, some recipes use oatmeal to thicken, and others use potato, rice or barley. I love the nuttiness of barley, and somehow barley sounds like it should be more Scottish than rice is, but had none in the house this weekend, so basmati rice it was.

Anyways, here’s the recipe. I always make a huge batch of soup so I can freeze the leftovers for lunches.

What you need

• 1 whole free-range chicken

• 2 leeks – the green tops roughly chopped, the white halved and sliced finely

• 4 carrots – 2 roughly chopped, and 2 finely diced

• 2 bay leaves

• About 1 cup basmati rice or barley

• whole peppercorns (I don’t know, say 12?) and a good pinch of sea salt to taste

What you do with it

• Put your chicken, the green leek tops, the roughly chopped carrots, the bay leaves, peppercorns and a large pinch of sea salt into a large soup pot and cover with cold water. Set the sliced leeks and diced carrots aside for later.

• Bring to the boil and skim off any impurities – the leek tops will help catch this so it’s okay if some of them are skimmed out at the same time as the gunky bits.

• Pop the lid on, reduce the heat to low, and let it all simmer happily for about an hour.

• Once the hour is up, take the chicken out. You can strip the meat and shred it once it’s cool enough to handle. Some of it you’ll use in the soup and the rest can be properly stored for another meal.

• Scoop out the carrots, leek tops and bay leaves and discard these. You’ll now be left with a gorgeous-smelling stock. I like to strain the stock through an old, thin tea towel or piece of calico, but while it’s not necessary, it does make for a clearer stock.

• Put all your diced and sliced veg and the rice or barley into your stock. Bring it back to the boil, pop the lid on and reduce to a simmer for around 40 minutes until the veg and the rice/barley are soft.

• Take some of your shredded chicken and put it in the bottom of each of your bowls. If you did want to add prunes, you could add a few roughly chopped at this point.

• Pour the soup over the chicken, ensuring you get good ladlefuls of the veg and barley.