Adaptable/easy/safe chicken soup with banana

[sarkin]

I can't believe how tasty this was. We'll be making it again, with variations. I look forward to expanding the vegetable options, maybe finishing it with a touch of coconut (if I can have coconut). BUT the beauty was that it rocked with my very few, trusted ingredients, and my husband can't wait to have it again:

CHICKEN (or turkey) SOUP with bananas

* Your delicious chicken (or turkey) stock - a cup or 2
* Chicken (or turkey): you can cook a breast in the soup as you go, or use pre-cooked chicken if you have some (I've been eating a lot of the wings from my husband's stock-making, and today cooked a whole breast in the stock as a I prepared this meal
* I included some well-cooked carrots (pretty but optional)
* half a ripe banana (or a bit more)
* about 1/2C cooked white rice (optional)

* a bit of curry powder (1/2 tsp?) - also optional. My curry powder has a short list of ingredients - use your own friendly spices (the turmeric adds a nice color). **PLEASE SEE NOTE BELOW FROM LYN ABOUT MAKING SURE CURRY POWDER IS SAFE**

If your chicken needs cooking, add it to the stock and start simmering on medium. If using pre-cooked chicken, add it when you add the spices. I cut my chicken breast into several pieces to speed up lunch.

Chop or slice the banana pretty small, add to the saucepan, and mush a bit with the fork - you can keep mushing as you turn the cooking meat occasionally. When the banana smells shifts to that dessert-y quality, add the rice and curry powder or your chosen spice, if using, and simmer till the chicken is done.

That's it! The cooked banana flavor was so unexpected it acted like a mystery exotic ingredient.

This soup would be served as a sauce over a whole chicken breast on top of rice. I'm going to blend some as a comforting puree next time.


***LYN's NOTE***
Take a little care with the curry powder. It is common for mixed herbs and spices to use gluten and it's not always on the label. You can make your own garam masala mix from individual spices, or use a brand which you are confident of.

I also read from a spice specialist that he finds it impossible to buy asafoetida which does not contain gluten as part of it's processing. So do watch for that as an ingredient in curry powders. Then again, it may be in such small quantities by the time it reaches the final dish that it doesn't cause problems anyway.

[tex]

This looks great.

Thanks for sharing,
Tex

[Bifcus16]

That sounds really interesting

Take a little care with the curry powder. It is common for mixed herbs and spices to use gluten and it's not always on the label. You can make your own garam masala mix from individual spices, or use a brand which you are confident of.

I also read from a spice specialist that he finds it impossible to buy asafoetida which does not contain gluten as part of it's processing. So do watch for that as an ingredient in curry powders. Then again, it may be in such small quantities by the time it reaches the final dish that it doesn't cause problems anyway.

Lyn

[sarkin]

Lyn, that's super-helpful, thanks. I didn't know that about asafoetida - there wasn't any in my jarred curry powder (it had only 3-4 *listed* ingredients, and I had tried all but the ginger in recent days, safely ... a true Indian cook would have been sad!).

I am lucky to be able to buy spices whole from a great local source (well, the spices are grown where they grow - but the store is local), and grind them myself. I didn't do that with the curry, so I was lucky. Maybe I'll do a little more of my own spice prep for a while.

[MBombardier]

I'm just impressed you can both spell "asafoetida".

This looks a lot like supper today.