It’s fall and I’m making lots of soup. I love soup…Hubby not so much so when I make it, the soup has to be hearty. Sunday I took out some chicken to thaw. It was a big pack of chicken legs that I had bought when it was on sale. I intended to have chicken but by Thursday I realized the chicken was still in the refrigerator and I hadn’t used it. UGH. They needed to used immediately. So…no chicken legs for us. Being it had to be cooked I’d cook it all up and use the shredded meat for a couple dishes.
Into the Instant Pot the chicken went. I knew one of the things I’d be making was a soup so I put extra water in the pot so I’d have some soup base. I put the chicken in and pushed the meat setting. I then added time to the pot so that it was set at 55 minutes. This makes the chicken able to fall off of the bone which I want if I’m shredding the chicken.
Once the chicken was done and cooled I put a whole bunch of ice cubes into the pot. All of the fat from the chicken adheres to the ice cubes…
You can see here that I am scooping away the ice cubes with the fat clinging to them.
Can you believe that all of this fat came out of the pot??
I can’t get every drop and honestly, I don’t want to. The fat gives the soup some of the taste.
Did you know the ice cube trick for removing fat from a stock pot?
As for the soup….it’s gone.
I forgot to take pictures. Kalissa and I ate it as soup for lunch. Then for supper I thickened it up and made home made biscuits to go with it. Ah…biscuits with chicken gravy. It’s one of our favorite meals. The rest of the chicken was used in two batches of chicken enchiladas…one for the freezer and one for tomorrow. PERFECT. I like days that already have the meals prepared for them. Maybe it’s not such a bad thing that the chicken was in the refrigerator and had to be used immediately!
Great tip. I never knew to use ice cubes. Thank you
My mother showed me that trick, she used it on hamburger (back when hamburger had a lot of grease in it.) And I am pretty careful not leave too much of the fat in the soup either. Soup/stew is a great way to use chicken.
I put mine in the fridge overnight, then remove the fat. I made broth today! :)
I also put mine in the refrigerator to chill…the fat will come to the top and solidify… Then I can just use a spoon or spatula to remove the fat.
However, I really like the ice cube trick, and I am going to give it a try!
Thanks for passing along the tip, Jo!
Jo,
This was a favorite of my husband’s and mine:
Tip Hero
Creamy Chicken Wild Rice Soup
This warm creamy soul warming soup is so easy to make. And what better meal to come home to on a chilly evening than a bowl of this comforting, heart soup? Check out the video below:
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Creamy Chicken Wild Rice Soup – Crock pot
Ingredients:
½ Cup uncooked wild rice
½ Cup uncooked basmati rice
1-½ lb. chicken breast
1 Cup onion, diced
1 Cup carrot, diced
¾ Cup celery, diced
4-5 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 bay leaves (depending on strength)
6 Cups low sodium chicken broth
2 Cups water
1 tbsp. Italian seasoning
1-½ tsp. Black pepper
2 tsp. salt
5 tbsp. butter
½ Cup all purpose flour
2 Cups whole milk
Instructions:
Rinse the rice under running water. In a 5-½ qt. slow cooker, place uncooked rice, chicken breast, onions, carrots, celery, garlic, bay leaf, chicken broth, water, italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours or on low for 7-8 hours. Remove chicken from pot during the last 30 minutes of cooking. Allow to cool slightly then shred with two forks.
Add the chicken back to the slow cooker and continue cooking vegetables through. Melt butter in a small saucepan.
Add the flour and cook for one minute. Whisk the mixture slowly while adding the milk, whisking to remove all lumps and until sauce has thickened and become creamy.
Add the bechemel sauce to the slow cooker, stirring to combine. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Let sit 5 minutes, soup will thicken as it stands.