Lemon-infused Chicken Soup
I developed this recipe for lemon-infused chicken soup for Wish Magazine few years back when the theme was healthy cooking – a new year, a new you. I added the lemon and fennel (they are very subtle) as a bit of a twist to enhance the basic chicken stock but you can omit them for more of a classic stock if you like. It’s a warming simple soup that will nurture as you make it and as you eat it!
Rinse chicken and remove giblets from cavity.
Place chicken in a large stockpot. If you don’t have a pot large enough to hold a whole chicken, buy 1.5kg of chicken pieces. Add peppercorns, lemon zest, onion, garlic, carrots, celery and fennel. Cover with cold water and place over medium-high heat.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer and cook slowly for 1-1 1/2 hours, depending on size of chicken. Skim impurities and fat as necessary.
Strain the stock into a clean pot and set aside.
Carefully remove chicken (it may fall apart). When cool enough to handle remove meat from bones and pull into bite-sized pieces..
Add chicken pieces back into the strained stock with the cooked rice, carrots and fennel and heat through. Season with salt and pepper.
Andrea Stewart
It’s not surprising that three of Andrea Stewart’s favourite foods are bread, butter and champagne, since her approach to all things culinary has always been pure and simple. This experienced, creative and enterprising chef and editor approaches cooking and eating with a solid appreciation for fresh, local and seasonal ingredients. Andrea’s journey with food began while living in France, working as an au pair for Grace Jones. While feeding the young offspring of the famous singer, she was tempted on a daily basis by the busy, colourful French food markets. Later on, she spent a summer at Ecole de Gastronomie Francaise Ritz-Escoffier and fell in love all over again with everything France had to offer. Upon returning to Canada, she was accepted at the acclaimed Stratford Chefs School and after completing her first year she headed to New York to further sharpen her skills, working alongside some of the finest (including Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto) and catering Martha Stewart’s executive meetings. Andrea returned to Toronto in 1996, and further immersed herself in her career, working at some of the city’s top food fixtures, including Mildred Pierce and Ace Bakery. She eventually took a side-step out of the kitchen and into the halls of magazine publishing, landing a position as Food Editor of Wish Magazine in 2004. While inspiring busy Canadian wonder-women to cook from scratch, she published her first cookbook, Wish, Market to Table. From street food to fine dining to unfamiliar grocery stores, food still motivates Andrea at every turn. She recently sold everything but a prized collection of cookbooks and moved to the U.K., where her culinary library spans the two floors of her London flat. She won’t rest until she has cooked from every one of them!