My Jewish Penicillin

If he weren’t so dangerously unhealthy and overweight, I would wholeheartedly recommend that Brian Cowen live off this recipe for the foreseeable future. No dish can make you feel better than Jewish Penicillin, otherwise known as Chicken soup. Comfort food to the extreme, himself and Willie O’Dea could really use some right now. But my Jewish Penicillin is the full fat version, An Taoiseach’s doctors wouldn’t like that. I use all the schmaltz as the chosen people call it, the chicken skin. That’s what really makes a good stock.

A few years ago I found myself in Lisbon on a horrific bender. Twas a fantastic stag party and remarkably nobody was arrested/raped or hospitalized. During that long weekend, breakfast for me consisted of chicken soup with orzo. I swear to fuck, it kept me alive. There is something so healing about it’s collective properties.

My chicken soup is like a big massive multi vitamin. I lash in a whole bulb of garlic for starters and it’s got shit loads of celery and carrots in it. All good for mind, body and hole. Enjoy.

INGREDIENTS:

* 1 whole corn fed chicken (Superquinn do one for about €8)
* 6 stalks of celery, sliced diagonally into one inch pieces
* 9 carrots, washed and sliced diagonally into one inch pieces
* 1 large Spanish onion, chopped coarsely
* 1 bulb of garlic (yes the whole fucking thing), peeled and broken into whole cloves
* 1 Kallo chicken stock cube (if you can’t get it don’t bother with another brand, just replace with a little more celery salt)
* 6 shallots sliced thinly
* 2 teaspoons of Celery salt
* 2 cups of Orzo pasta (Listons on Camden St, Magill’s on Clarendon St)
* 1 teaspoon of freshly ground pepper
* 4 sprigs of fresh rosemary

METHOD:
Get your chicken, garlic, Spanish onion, half of your celery, rosemary and carrots and lob them all into a big fuck off pot. Fill the pot with water and heat it up with the lid on. When it starts to boil put in your stock cube and bring the heat down very low. Leave with the lid on for 1 hour.

Remove the chicken carefully and let it sit for ten minutes so that it cools down a little, you can leave the pot on a low heat with the lid off. When the chicken has cooled down enough for you to touch, remove all the skin. Throw the skin into the pot and whiz it all up with one of them soup blenders or put it all into a food processor. Then throw in the rest of your celery,carrots and rosemary along with the shallots and celery salt.

While they’re all cooking you need to start shredding the chicken, my favourite part of the prep. You just gotta remove all the meat with your hands and leave them in little bitesize chunks and slivers. When you’ve done all that lash the meat into the pot with everything else. Let it cook for another twenty minutes.

While that’s cooking, sort out your pasta by boling it in some water and a cup of the stock that you’ve been making. While it’s still al dente, drain it and lash it into the soup. Try to keep a cup of that starchy pasta water though and put that into the soup too. Good for thickening it up a bit. Stir it all up and serve.

SERVE WITH: A crusty bit of bread if you want and garnish with a pinch of finely chopped rosemary. Sneak in a wee glass of Rosé if you want to complete the feel-good factor.