Main Meals

Whole chicken soup

Easy
1½ - 2 hours

"This delicious, veggie-packed soup uses a whole chicken, which looks good in the middle of a table, but can also be shredded and stirred into the soup. This is an elixir. I can *almost* guarantee it!"

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Ingredients

Method
  • 4 T extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 whole free-range chicken
  • sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
  • 1 T smoked paprika
  • 2 large carrots, diced
  • 2 sticks celery, diced
  • 2 large leeks, washed and sliced
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled and sliced
  • 1 T coriander seeds
  • 1 small head broccoli, cut into florets
  • 1 T Bovril
  • 1 stalk lemongrass
  • 1 bird’s-eye chilli, halved
  • 1 bunch kale, roughly chopped
  • 1 lemon
  • 1 bunch fresh coriander, roughly chopped

1. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan. Rub the chicken with salt, pepper and paprika. Brown the chicken over a high heat until the skin is golden. Add the carrots, celery, leeks,
garlic, ginger and coriander seeds and fry a further five minutes, caramelising the veggies.

2. Top up with enough cold water to submerge the chicken and vegetables and bring to the boil. Add all the remaining ingredients except the lemon and fresh coriander. Boil the broth for 25 minutes, then turn off the heat.

3. Place the lid on the pot and allow the chicken to slowly poach in the hot liquid for 11/2 hours. Remove the lid and check the seasoning of the broth. Adjust if necessary. Stir in the chopped coriander and squeeze in the lemon. Serve steaming hot with slivers of the succulent poached chicken.

Find more soup recipes here.

Photograph: Jan Ras 

Khanya Mzongwana

Recipe by: Khanya Mzongwana

If you're anything like our deputy food editor Khanya Mzongwana, you're obsessed with uniqueness and food with feeling. Cook her family-tested favourites, midweek winners and her mouth-wateringly fresh takes on plant-based eating.

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