Elsah Landing Chicken Curry Soup!!!!

The adventure began when Steven, a friend and co-worker of Whitney's, mentioned that we should combine our cooking strengths: mine being SOUP and Whitney's being CURRY. Thus, began the Chicken Curry Soup Adventure of 2010.

Elsah Landing Restaurant located in Elsah, Illinois is the creator of this delicious dish, but Whitney and I added a little Yunnan twist!!

The Original Recipe: "Chicken Curry Soup" will be in black.

Yunnan Chicken Curry Soup will be in yellow.

Ingredients: 4 cups water, 1 frying chicken cut up, 6 peppercorns, 2 stalks of celery, 1 peeled onion, 1/4 cup butter, 1 medium onion finely diced, 1 cup carrots finely diced, 2 teaspoon curry powder, 2 tablespoons cornstarch mixed with 1/4 cup water, 2 teaspoons salt, 1/4 teaspoon sugar, 1 cup evaporated milk, 1 apple peeled and sliced.
Ingredients:1 live chicken (killed by the chicken man) cut into pieces, enough water to cover chicken two stalks of celery and one whole onion, said celery and onion, no butter but a dash of oil, 1 onion finely diced, 3 carrots coined, 1 head of cauliflower cut into small pieces, spoon upon spoon of curry powder (not measured), cinnamon to taste, 2 table spoons cornstarch, dash of salt to taste, dash of sugar to taste, dash of pepper to taste, 1 can of evaporated milk, 1 apple peeled and sliced.

Directions: combine cut up chicken, peppercorns, celery, onion, and 4 cups water in large sauce pan. Cover and simmer for 1 hour, or until chicken and vegetables are tender. Cool. Remove chicken from skin and bones, cut into bite sized pieces and set aside. Discard skin and bones. Reserve and strain liquid for stock.

Saute diced onion and carrots in butter in medium saucepan over low heat until onion is golden but not brown. Add curry powder and saute for an additional 10 min. Add chicken stock. Bring to a simmer and cook over medium heat for 5 min. Stir cornstarch mixture into simmering stock. Add salt, sugar, and reserved chicken. Add milk. Heat but do not boil.

Garnish each serving with an apple slice.

Makes 4-6 servings.

Directions: Take fresh chicken home and attempt to chop into pieces. Save feet for Chinese roommate and friend. Place mangled bits of chicken into large pot with peeled onion and two stalks of celery cover with water. Simmer for an hour to an hour and a half. Cool for two hours. Remove chicken from bones and skin, discard. Place chicken and vegetables in container in fridge. Place broth in large container in fridge. Next day, saute diced onion, carrots, and cauliflower in wok with oil until onions are golden. Add spoon of curry powder and saute until all vegetables are covered. Add chicken stock. Stir and taste. Add two more spoons of curry powder and a dash of cinnamon. Heat for a while. Stir in cornstarch mixture. Add pepper, salt, sugar to taste. Add chicken and apple slices. Let simmer for a while. Add can of evaporated milk. Simmer for 30min. Accidentally boil briefly. Turn down heat. Simmer until guests arrive. Makes 5 servings because it is soooo good!!
Photo Evidence!!!

This Lucky Chicken we did not pick out for our dinner!!

This Rooster had a section of his chest feathers missing and in their place were those funny looking white protuberances.

This was the winner for being intimately involved with our curry dish!!

To see the process that occurred behind the counter of chickens by our friendly Chicken man please download the video labeled Dinner on my blog.

Now that our chicken is dead, naked, and gutted he (she, but we named her Victor) goes into this lovely plastic bag.

We are finally home and ready to begin this long process. See how happy I am??

Left handing holding bony chicken legs and right hand holding open the plastic bag, I am beginning to freak out....it felt so gross-like the legs were already broken.

Lovely!!!

Almost out of the bag!!!

VICTORY with VICTOR!!!!

So what you are looking at here is a dead chicken. This is what one looks like. The chicken breast you buy at the grocery store came off of one of these. Most people in Yunnan eat the neck and parts of the head even. The nice Chicken man even gave us Victor's heart, liver, and perhaps some other organs. We did not use Victor in an economic way like most Chinese.

We cut off Victor's neck and head and threw them away along with the organs. The feet however, we attempted to save for Jian Juan (Whitney's roommate) but sadly we forgot to refrigerate them and found them sitting on the counter in the morning. So we didn't feel safe giving them to her after a night out on the kitchen.

This picture is only here to prove that Whitney was a part of this whole adventure and that she did cut up part of this chicken.

First wing to make it into the pot!!!

This is Victor's carcus after it simmered for an hour, cooled for two hours and then Whitney and I picked all the meat off of the bones. I am sure that we missed some.

After this whole experience, both Whitney and I agree that this soup was perhaps the most delicious chicken soup we have ever eaten let alone ever made. We agree that we will make it again. However, we have some changes that we will make. 1. neither of us have good knifes and therefore, next time we will ask the Chicken man to cut the chicken into pieces for us. That will reduce the drama of breaking bones in ones own kitchen. 2. we will not attempt to make this at the end of a long work day. 3. get a bigger pot so that we can make more at one time.







I hope that this has been interesting, educational, entertaining, and mostly tasty. I encourage all of you to attempt this recipe. Perhaps don't be quite as involved like we were with Victor, but go and buy a whole chicken at the store and try it at home!! I guarantee that it will rock your socks off!!