I have most of a bottle of tequila in the cupboard, probably left over from making margaritas a long time ago. Clearly it’s not getting consumed as a beverage, so I decided to try some in a marinade for chicken. It’s excellent mixed with lime juice, salt, pepper, hot sauce, oregano, and cumin. Let the chicken marinate for as long as you can, up to overnight. I’m not sure what it really does, but the chicken seems to take on a nicer golden brown color, and maybe there’s a little of that desert-cactus flavor from the tequila. I first tried it with wings, but it’s great on all bird parts.
When you’ve just eaten a chicken and you’re getting sleepy, take a couple of minutes before getting out that tub of ice cream to put the remaining parts of the chicken – it’s soul really – into your favorite leftover repository. Then you can make soup the next day, making the $15 you spent to get that organic, free range, kosher chicken a little closer to worth it.
Ingredients:
chicken stock
a bunch of vegetables, such as carrots, onion, celery, beets, cabbage, leeks, bell pepper, collard greens, etc.
bacon
Start by making some chicken stock from the remains of that poor chicken – simmer whatever was left in some water with maybe some onion, carrot, celery, peppercorns, allspice, and thyme. Simmer for around 1/2 hour, probably over low heat, but it depends on your stove. Once that’s been going for a few minutes you can start softening the vegetables. Ideally, you had bacon for breakfast and left the pan dirty – if so, use that pan! Pretty much any vegetables will do, but I think chicken soup should at least contain onion, carrot, and celery. And more bacon. Once the vegetables are soft, pour in the stock. If there’s chicken left on the bones you can throw that in the soup too once it’s cool enough to pull off the bones. Do some tasting to check for saltiness. Some vinegar or lemon juice will add a lot of flavor if you’re avoiding salt. To make my soup even more likely to be accepted as dinner, I added some cooked lentils and garnished with creme fraiche and cheese.
