Rich and Ruthless

The best soups have the richest stocks. These aren’t always easy to make when you’re trying to cut fat out of your diet. Chicken soup, for instance, gets much of its flavor from the long simmering of the chicken skin, which happens to contain most of the fat of the bird. If you are ruthless in the skimming of your broth, you will eliminate most of the fat from the soup. You can also make chicken soup from skinless chicken, but then you don’t get a very flavorful broth.

In this recipe, we use skinless chicken--you still get a lot of flavor from the meat and bones--but we also use canned chicken stock instead of plain water. This gives the broth the richness it needs to make a comforting bowl of soup.

To remove even more fat from the broth, take the chicken out of the broth and let the soup stand overnight in the refrigerator. The following day remove any excess fat from the top of the broth. Use the reserved chicken meat in another recipe such as chicken pot pie or chicken salad and get several meals out of your soup pot.

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Fresh carrots, yellow and green squash and potatoes are used in this soup but choose what vegetables appeal to your taste and eye when your at the market. Cooked long-grain brown rice is stirred in at the end of cooking for substance and for its rich nutty flavor.

EXTRA RICH CHICKEN- VEGETABLE SOUP

1 (3-pound) chicken, skin removed

2 (49 1/2-ounce) cans chicken broth

1 carrot, peeled and cut into chunks

1 small onion, quartered

3 cloves garlic

6 peppercorns

3 carrots, cut into 1/2-inch slices

2 potatoes, peeled and cubed

2 zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch slices

2 yellow squash, cut into 1/2-inch slices

3 cups cooked long-grain brown rice

Chopped parsley or chopped cilantro

Remove any excess fat from cavity of chicken. Pour broth over chicken in 5-quart pot. Add carrot chunks, onion, garlic and peppercorns. Bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer until chicken is fork tender, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Let chicken cool in broth. Remove any excess fat from top of broth.

Remove chicken from broth and refrigerate for another use. Strain broth. Return broth to saucepan. Add sliced carrots and potatoes. Simmer until tender, about 15 minutes. Add zucchini, yellow squash and brown rice. Continue to simmer until vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle chopped parsley over top. Makes 8 servings.

Each serving contains about:

171 calories; 1,370 mg sodium; 2 mg cholesterol; 3 grams fat; 24 grams carbohydrates; 12 grams protein; 0.91 grams fiber.