It's Supper Time!

This is a wonderfully wholesome and nourishing broth. Because the chicken is boiled up whole in this soup, the protein and minerals in the meat and bones are captured in the dish.

1. Heat the olive oil in a large pot or pressure cooker.
2. When the oil is thin from the heat, add the sliced onion, turn the heat to medium, and slowly sauté the onions until they are soft and golden brown (see note i).
3. If desired, add half a cup of dry white wine while sautéing the onions.
4. Add the garlic and stir.
5. Cut off the chicken's fatty tail (see note ii).
6. Chuck in the whole chicken (see note iii). Turn it in the onions with a wooden spoon until it is light brown on the outside.
7. Add all of the veggies and the soup mix to the pot (see note iv).
8. Add enough prepared liquid vegetable stock to just cover the solids in liquid.
9. Put on the lid and simmer slowly (or pressure-cook) until the chicken meat easily comes off from the bones (ideally 2 hours on the stove, or 40 min in the pressure cooker). Add boiled water if the broth becomes too thick.
10. Fish out the large chicken bones and discard them (the tiny ones should be soft as wafers by now and quite edible)
11. Season to taste (see note v)

Serve with warm ciabatta rolls to mop up the bowl.

Notes:
i. Onions are delicious, but even more so when they've caramelised a bit, and turned their sugars into brown smokey goodness. This goes well with chicken.
ii. The little tailbone of the chicken is very fatty (which some people like when braising a whole chicken -- I always chop it off). In this recipe, it'll cause a fatty layer on top of your soup that you don't want; get rid of it.
iii. Remember to remove the giblets from the chicken's chest cavity! Freeze these for use in peri-peri chicken livers later. And remember that a single chopped chicken liver adds mouth-watering depth of taste to a bolognaise sauce.
iv. Feel free to improvise here, depending on your taste. A bit of spinach is always nice in a broth, and some potato or butternut gives it a bit more body.
v. Obviously, add enough salt to make it taste good (remember that the stock is already salty). Add pepper for warmth (I like adding a pinch of cayenne pepper to any soup to get just a lingering warmth in the mouth without getting hot). But when seasoning, always make sure that you balance the four primary tastes: salt, sweet, sour and bitter. The onions and the chicken add sweetness, but if I need to add more sweetness to any dish, I like using a dollop of Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce, because it also balances the other tastes. A few drops of lemon juice to balance acidity can greatly improve the taste of a dish. And don't forget bitter! In this dish, I find that the minerals in the chicken bones add just enough bitterness to make it delicious.