Chicken soup for the soul

Was our aptly named dinner last Wednesday on the eve of National Soup Day, which calls for everyone to share some soup with someone in need.

My housemate, Meg and I, rustled up a delicious and soulful chicken soup for our house of hungry Acropolites.

Ingredients:
- Chicken on the bone (for 10 of us, we used 2 packs of enormous breast and thigh pieces)
- Vegetables - lots of them. We used pumpkin, onions, potatoes and a big pack of pre-chopped soup mix from Pick n Pay
- Stock (we ended up using 4 cubes of chicken stock in total)
- Packet soup (we substituted with 4 cup-a-soups because we didn't preempt the need for something to bind all the ingredients together into deliciousness)

Method:
- Pop all the chicken (bones, skin and all) in a big pot of boiling stock and leave to well, boil
- After about 15 minutes, get the potatoes and pumpkin (and any other hard veggies you have) boiling in another pot
- In another 25 minutes or so (or however long it takes to have a relaxing (individual) bath between step 2 and 3), take the chicken out of the pot. Pull off the skin and the meat should then fall off the bone with a gentle tug from a fork. Shred it as finely as you want or have the patience to endure. - After taking the chicken out, add that mixed bag of soup veggies to start boiling in the juicy chicken water

- Ideally, at this point you have a giant pot in which to mix everything together, adding some more water (this is not a stew after all!!) and letting it simmer.
- Mix up a concentrate of whatever dried soup you have lying around and add in the simmering mix.
- Add spices and salt and pepper to taste (although remember that the stock has added quite a lot of salt already)
- You can then choose to leave as is if you prefer a chunky soup, or blend the 'stodgy' part together.
- Allow everything to soak in the deliciousness for a while longer and then voila, dinner is ready!

 Serving:
- Offer your hungry guests (or male Acropolites) the option of making themselves some toast if they really feel that this soulful soup is not manly enough for them yet!

Post-dinner:
- Make so much extra that you can happily give some away in honour of National Soup Day...and take some to work for lunch!