This soup is delicious as a broth or as a base for any other soup. It’s an anti-inflammatory, so, if you are suffering from arthritis it will help you relieve pain. It can also help with weight loss.
Makes approx. 16 cups of soup.
Ingredients
2 or more pounds of raw chicken carcasses (about 4 chicken carccasses)
2 whole pig’s feet (ask the butcher cut each foot vertically and then cut each
vertical piece cut into three pieces to give you 6 small pieces from each foot)
1 whole chicken cut up
Purified water, enough to cover the bones by one inch
½ cup apple cider vinegar
4 carrots, chopped
4 stalks of celery with their leaves, chopped
1 large onion cut up into big chunks
1 tomato cut up into wedges
3″ stem of ginger root, peeled and chopped
4 cloves
2 teaspoons whole pepper corns
5 whole stalks of lemon grass cut up
1 bunch cilantro (about a dozen whole stems)
1 bunch fresh mint (about 5 stalks of mint)
Directions
- Clean out the pig’s feet well, preferably with a brush to remove any grime from it. Wash the whole chicken and the carcasses.
- Place the carcasses, the cup up whole chicken and the chopped up pigs feet into a large pot. Add the vinegar and enough purified water to cover the bones by one inch.
- On medium heat, bring the water to a simmer. Use a shallow spoon or a sieve to skim off the scum and film on top of the broth.
- Add all the veggies except for the herbs (the 3 last ingredients in the list of ingredients) and all the spices and reduce the heat to low. You want the broth to barely simmer.
- Skim occasionally over the first two hours. Make sure that the bones are always covered with water while simmering. You will need to add water during the cooking process.
- Cook for six hours. In the last half hour add the cilantro, lemon grass and mint. I tie each herb in a bundle so I can get it out easily later.
- When the broth is done, remove from heat and strain the broth and discard the solids. You can add the meat back into the soup if you like. Let cool on the counter before refrigeration.
- After the broth has sat in the fridge for a few hours or overnight, skim the fat from the surface.
When chilled, the broth becomes gelatinous. The broth will keep for 5 days in the fridge or for 3 or more months in the freezer. There is no salt in this recipe thus far.
When you are ready to enjoy this soup, heat it up, add salt to taste and a squeeze of FRESH lemon or lime.
You can also boil down the broth to make it tastier, then add salt and lemon juice.
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