Grandma Ginny's

Lourdes-Strength Chicken Soup

"My mother can cure leprosy and kidney rot with this recipe." (Mark Thrailkill)

Ginny's Chicken Soup - The Lourdes-strength Formula

1.) Go get a whole bunch of onions and a lot of celery. Buy a thing of fresh parsley, too.

2.) Now buy twice as many onions and celery as you thought you'd need.

3.) Get some chicken. (I can only abide boneless boobs--bones just gross me out.)

4.) Take HALF the onions and celery and put them and the whole chicken boobs in a big pot of water.

5.) Boil the hell out of it for as long as you can stand waiting while the good smells permeate throughout the house.

6.) Now, here's the secret that does the magic. After about an hour or two of boiling, put a big pan in the sink, put a colander in the pan, and dump the lot into it; what you're doing is separating the bits from the broth.

7.) Great wastefulness coming up: Chuck out the boiled onions and celery, and then pick out the chicken, cut it into bits, and put the chicken back into the pot. Add the stock, the NEW celery and onions--and the parsley this time--and then cook it like "normal" chicken soup for another hour or two.

8.) Other than salt and pepper, no another spice is needed!

9.) Finally, I just can't resist popping dumplings in at the very end. Use any old dumpling recipe on the Net.

Absolutely delicious, and will cure boils, plague, the vapours, and all other forms of beastly unpleasantness. Especially Australian beastly unpleasantness.

XOXO

Mark in London.