Chicken Chilli Soup

Chicken Chilli Soup by Charlotte

Did you have roast chicken at the weekend and do you have a small amount of chicken and perhaps some gravy left over? I did and I do. In the fridge I also have some small bits of fennel that are way past their heyday, one lonely mushroom, white wine left over from New Year and full cream milk that is not allowed near my tea cup but could work in a post work, post run chicken soup...

Ingredients (a rough guide)
Butter and olive oil
1 small onion, diced
Half a chilli, deseeded and thinly sliced
1 old mushroom, roughly chopped
Fennel bits from bottom of fridge drawer, diced (optional)
Dash of white wine
1 leek, roughly chopped
2 large potatoes, peeled and chopped
Leftover chicken gravy (enhanced with veg stock to make about 450ml)
Cooked leftover chicken
Handful of parsley (with stalks) roughly chopped
Splash of full cream milk
Salt and pepper

Here's what I did
- Heat a small amount of butter and oil and add the onion, chilli, mushroom and fennel. Cook for 7-8 minutes and then pour in some white wine, cook for a further 5 minutes.
- Add the leeks, potatoes and gravy/veg stock to the pan and cook on a low heat for approx 25 minutes with a lid on. Add more water if you need to.
- Add the cooked chicken to the saucepan, heat through and continue to simmer the soup for 10 minutes.
- Stir in the parsley and remove from the heat to blend the soup. My blender gave up have way through its job so we ended up with a chunky soup that was still nice and thick thanks to the starchy potatoes.
- Put the soup back on a low heat, stir in a splash of milk and season to taste.
- Serve hot and enjoy.