Leftover Thai Chicken and Mushroom Soup

A roast is not something I'd normally cook on a weekend but a roast chicken can do so many different meals as leftovers so it's not as daft an idea to cook for one, two or a small family as you might think.

Leftovers Soup - Serves 1

Ingredients

Approx 300ml, half a pint of home made chicken stock (see note below)
100g, 4oz Cooked chicken
6-8 Baby mushrooms (use fancy ones if you like)
A tbsp fish sauce
One dried chilli
A handful of fresh coriander (cilantro)

Method

Heat the chicken stock in a pan and then add the mushrooms and bring to the boil.  Add in the chicken and crumbled chilli.  Warm through the chicken, add the fish sauce and serve sprinkled with coriander.

To make chicken stock, on the day I have the roast, I always pick the meat off straight after lunch and put into a box in the fridge.  I then put the bones and any skin into a slow cooker with any leftover gravy.  Slow cook for 2-4 hours.  Obviously this makes it more than a 10 minute recipe if you do it then make the soup but I did it in the weekend when I was in the house then ate the soup during the week (twice because I liked it so much) which is what makes it fast when you need it to be fast.

Strain out the bones and sieve the stock.  Pour into a jug and store in a fridge.  When chilled, you can take any fatty layer off the top then use for this or any other recipe you like (a leftover risotto could be pretty special) or you could even freeze it till later.

If you want to make this soup more substantial, add in rice noodles or more vegetables but there is something so lovely about the good stock being the star of the show.  This is just good food for the soul.

I've uploaded this to Recipe of the Week.