Chicken and lemon soup recap

Here is the link for the soup I made last night:

Mediterranean Chicken and Lemon Soup

It was quite good. I think I’ll use a bit less lemon juice next time, although my husband liked it as is. My version was very lemony because I wanted a stew rather than a thinner stew and thus used less of the liquids.

I used only 2 cups chicken broth because I wanted a thicker consistency. Also, turns out that is all I had left! I recommend the Kitchen Basics brand that comes in an aseptic package if you don’t have any homemade broth on hand. I do make my own chicken stock, but it always when I am making chicken soup, so I never have any leftover. (For anyone living in Wakefield, MA, Farmland carries it.)

Although…since I looked for and found a bunch of recipes calling for precooked chicken yesterday, perhaps I’ll start making my own stock from raw chicken parts – save the stock for other things and freeze the cooked meat in portions for all the recipes I found that I now want to try. Well, we’ll see if I really do get that going.

Anyway – along with using less stock, I added an additional 2 Tbsps of rice, and my two cups of chicken weighed 12 oz, versus the 6 oz mentioned in the recipe. I used green pepper instead of red, and only about 4-5 oz of evaporated milk. As to the recipe saying to mix 1 Tbsp each evaporated milk and cornstarch to start the thickening base, I used 2 Tbsp of milk. To thick and lumpy with just one!

I also added a pinch each of salt and sugar (to mellow out the lemon – it worked a little bit) and added a medium plum tomato, sliced thin and cut into quarters or halves, about 10 minutes before serving time. About 5 minutes before, I added the basil.

I steamed up some swiss chard on the side and ended up with a tasty and healthy meal. Although it would have been lower fat if I have used low fat evaporated milk, but I didn’t have any on hand. (My cupboards are getting quite bare – must go shopping soon.) But, as I only used 4-5 oz, I guess that helped even it off.

So – a keeper, as my husband will say.