Chicken Soup with Toasted Garlic, Mushrooms, and Celery by Alison Roman

Throughout this project, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how food can heal. Last January, I was physically in need of some serious healing. Rest helped, getting back into an exercise rhythm helped, but food saved me. 

Jordan and I had both been working jobs that left little to no bandwidth for anything beyond them. Rhythms and relationships got thrown to the curb as we flipped the “survival mode” switch to “On.” Meals mostly consisted of pre-made dinners from Trader Joes and Door Dash orders. We ate for fuel, not pleasure. 

Now, I realize that there are seasons in most peoples’ lives when survival mode is the only option. And there’s actually nothing wrong with Door Dash – we still use it today! (I also realize how privileged it is to even have access to Door Dash!) But it wasn’t until I quit my job and gained back the time and energy to cook for us that I started to heal. (You can read more about my thoughts on the importance of cooking rhythms here.)

Making things from scratch, besides the clear health benefits (isn’t it nice to know what’s actually in your food?), has brought great healing in my life. Yes, I was one of those people who started making sourdough during the pandemic. And yes, I actually do have a loaf proving in my oven as I write this. I love making my own bread. Another joy has been saving chicken bones and making bone broth. I first made Alison’s Golden Broth with Turmeric and Garlic, which is also the base for this chicken soup, on the day that I got my second CD-19 vaccine. I decided to make the broth again, and this soup, on the day I got my CD-19 booster shot. Seemed only fitting! 

The broth, bursting with complex flavor, was even better than I remembered. I made two adjustments from last time: I used turmeric root instead of ground turmeric, and used a combination of chicken carcass and turkey carcass leftover from Thanksgiving dinner. Let’s just say I’ll never throw turkey bones away again. 

After spending about four hours making the broth, I turned to the soup, starting with the toasted garlic. Toasted garlic is actually the soup’s topping, but by no means can it be missed. I let the garlic slices turn a warm, golden brown at the bottom of my Dutch oven and spooned them out as they reached peak color, being sure not to take them all out at once so the stragglers could toast, too. (Pro tip: I sprinkled the leftover garlic chips on a pizza the next day, and OH MY!)

Leaving the garlicky oil behind, I threw in two large shallots, thinly sliced into rings. They spent just a few minutes getting loosely crispy before the mushrooms joined. I really liked how the soup maintained a distinct, but subtle shallot flavor, especially with all of the other potent ingredients in this recipe. For that reason, I would strongly caution against substituting shallot for a different kind of onion, as some are wont to do. For the mushrooms, I used a combination of oyster, shiitake, maitake, and lobster, all found at Whole Foods. After roughly five minutes of releasing lots of steam, I poured in the broth and brought it to a simmer so the shallot and mushrooms could infuse the broth. 

Two days before, I made Alison’s Slow-Roasted Oregano Chicken. I saved the bones for this broth, and the leftover meat for this soup! A true Laura Ingalls Wilder moment. The chicken and celery need only a few minutes to warm through in the broth before the soup is ready for bowls. Before serving, I mixed in a half teaspoon of fish sauce, which made the broth all the richer. Alison says it’s optional, but I think it should be mandatory. 

I took Alison’s side note seriously and made brown rice noodles to go along with the soup, which made it more filling and hearty. I topped each bowl with cilantro and the toasted garlic chips. Wow, what an incredible soup. My serious compliments to the recipe creator! I recently ate at an up-and-coming ramen restaurant in Chicago called High-Five Ramen. Their broth may be the best ramen broth I’ve ever tasted. And Alison’s broth truly rivals it! It even got better with age – leftovers were a highlight these last few days. 

Three days after my booster shot, I tested positive for CD-19. Instead of driving to see family, our Christmas will be spent in quarantine. Food can’t heal everything, but I’m grateful to recover with Jordan next to me and lots of time to cook the remaining recipes for this project. 

Merry Christmas Eve! I wish anyone reading this a safe holiday, filled with wonder and good food. 

192 recipes cooked, 33 to go.

Golden Chicken Broth with Turmeric and Garlic by Alison Roman

For several months, I’ve been saving chicken bones. I’d come to save several backbones from spatchcocked chickens, a couple of wings from recipes that just wanted thighs and breasts, and cooked, uneaten scraps that no one wanted. I was saving them all to make my very first homemade chicken broth. 

What better occasion to make this broth than in preparation for my second Covid-19 vaccine. We knew from friends and family that the second Moderna vaccine could warrant some less than desirable symptoms. The alleged window to appear was 8-12 hours post shot. So as soon as I returned home from my early morning vaccine, I got to work making this broth. 

First step is to place an onion, cut in half crosswise, and two heads of garlic, cut the same way, and a large piece of peeled ginger, cut-side down in the stockpot over shimmering canola oil. The goal is to get these ingredients a bit toasty, which takes only a few minutes. Alison specifies that she likes to keep the onion skins on for the added color they provide. 

Next, the other vegetables and spices are thrown in for softening: celery, chopped fennel bulb, bay leaves, whole star anise, and turmeric. Once these are slightly softened and equally coated in oil, the water and chicken bones get added. 12 cups of water and 3 lbs. of chicken bones to be exact. My bones were all frozen, so they were rather bulky at first, and I was afraid they wouldn’t fit in the stock pot. After several minutes of thawing, they eventually got unglued from one another, and sank to fit nicely in the pot. 

Since some of my bones still had meat left, I removed them after 30 minutes of simmering to pull the meat off so it didn’t dry out. I saved these little scraps for the chicken noodle soup I’d make next. Bones, fat, and cartilage all go back in the pot, and the stock simmers for another 2-2.5 hours, or until it’s reduced by about a third. 

The final step is to strain the broth. I used a large colander at first, just to catch all the chunky vegetables and bones. And then I used a smaller fine mesh strainer to catch any bits of bone or garlic that made it past the colander. 

The broth was indeed a golden yellow, and had a really pleasant taste. There was certainly a layer of oily fat on top, which in hindsight I would probably try to scoop away partially. But the flavor of that fat is important, too. And all the rumors are true, you can definitely tell the difference between a homemade broth and a store bought box of broth. 

Once the broth was ready, I made a simple chicken noodle soup, using Ali Slagle’s NYT recipe as a guideline, utilizing the broth and chicken scraps leftover from the bones. All of this was done by about 7 hours after my vaccine. 

At hour 12, things got real. I suddenly had a high fever, terrible body aches, chills and sweats, and a throbbing headache. This lasted through the night (I didn’t sleep much) and I had a milder version of it throughout the next day. I spent that whole second day on the couch, and at one point fell asleep for four hours in the afternoon. I’m so grateful for the privilege of gaining immunity, but it sure wasn’t all smooth sailing. The chicken broth and noodle soup sure came in handy. 

46 recipes cooked, 179 to go.

oh, she glows

Special Beans in Tomato Broth and Slab Bacon by Alison Roman

Special Beans are a long game kind of dish. The game takes little active time, but you have to keep your eyes on the special prize if you want to win. 

What makes these beans so special? Alison says it’s the use of dried beans. Yes, dried beans. I’d purchased dried beans only once before during the early pandemic grocery frenzy because all the canned beans were gone. That bag of black beans is still sitting in my grain basket, untouched. 

There’s an entire essay and multiple recipes devoted to dried beans in Dining In, so I couldn’t avoid them forever. But I was hesitant. Dried beans demand a lot of forethought. These special beans needed 2 full days of soaking before they were ready for cooking. Dried beans also require commitment. There’s no sure way of telling if they’ll fully soften, so you have to soak and cook them, hoping for the best. 

Where I live, dried beans other than black or pinto are hard to find. When I went on my sumac hunt, I came across a Middle Eastern market that carries 2lb. bags of dried large lima beans. So two days before I wanted to eat my special beans, I began soaking 1lb. of lima beans in cold water. 

This being my first time around the dried bean block, I was mistaken about what would happen during this soaking period. I was under the impression that the beans would become totally softened to the point they resembled canned beans. So soft that you could eat them straight out of the bowl without cooking them. Instead, soaking just loosened the proteins in the beans, helping them expand to their true size. The beans were still rather hard and needed to be cooked for several hours before becoming edible. 

This recipe is meant to make flavorful beans, and while they can be eaten on their own, they’re best used in something else (Alison suggests her Best Baked Beans or soup). By the time I finished cooking these beans, it was 7:15pm (again, long game), so I wasn’t about to whip up another recipe. I also didn’t have time to use them in something else the next day; I travelled to Cincinnati the next morning to see my BFF / designer of my website logo (thanks, Rachel!). 

On cooking day, I began by heating the bacon in my Dutch oven with a good bit of olive oil. The key here is not to brown the bacon, but to heat it slowly so the fat has time to seep out. It’s the fat you’re really going for so it can infuse the beans with porky flavor. By this point, there should be a lot of oily fat at the bottom of the pot, enough to soak a bunch of tomatoes, shallots, and heads of garlic. (Here is another example of an Alison recipe that requires minimal chopping, if choppin ain’t your thang.) Add in some anchovies, a parmesan rind, fresh herbs, and water, and you’ve got a flavorful cooking liquid to soften your beans. 

The beans spent a little over 3 hours on the stove before they were softened to my liking. I served them in their cooking liquid with homemade sourdough and herbed goat cheese. The cooking liquid doesn’t have a super strong flavor, so we added some more salt, and even a bit of lemon juice to liven it up. 

I’ll make these beans again soon and plan to turn them into Alison’s Best Baked Beans. But next time, I’ll plan for an even longer long game. I bet it will be worth it. 

9 recipes cooked, 216 recipes to go.