Herbed chicken soup with assorted beans

You have to read the previous entry to get an idea about the beans and peppercorns I used to make my soup. Of course, it isn’t absolutely necessary to use assorted beans. You can go with just one kind or a combination of two. Assorted peppercorns aren’t a must either. Black peppercorns are the only widely available kind in Philippine markets but let that not serve as a limitation. I’ve been cooking with black peppercorns for decades and they are just great.

This recipe will yield enough soup for six to eight people. If you feel that’s too much, you can always use half as much, or even less, of every ingredient.

You will need:

about 400 grams of uncooked (dry) beans
1 whole chicken, about 1 kilo in weight
1 large onion
1 whole garlic
10 large tomatoes
2-3 bay leaves
1 tsp. of dried rosemary
1/2 tsp. of ground oregano
a teaspoonful of peppercorns
salt
chopped parsley for garnish (optional)

cooking chicken and beans soup

Wash the beans. Soak in water overnight. Gay posted a comment in the previous entry that if you add baking soda to dry beans, you can do with a few hours of soaking. Cook the beans in simmering water for about an hour and a half or until tender.

Place the chicken in a large deep pot, cover with water, add the whole garlic, onion, tomatoes, bay leaf, peppercorns, rosemary, oregano and salt. Bring to the boil, remove the scum as it rises, lower the heat, cover and simmer for an hour to an hour and a half.

chicken and beans soup

Remove the chicken, garlic, onion and tomatoes from the broth. Cool. Discard the bay leaves. Debone the chicken. Do not flake the meat; rather, tear them into fairly large pieces. See the photo above to get an idea.

Peel and mash the garlic, onion and tomatoes. Return everything to the pot, add the cooked beans (including the liquid in which they cooked), add more salt if necessary, bring to the boil and simmer for about 10 minutes. That’s it. You’ve got yourself a great hearty soup. Garnish with chopped parsley, if you wish, just before serving. Accompanied by bread, this herbed chicken and beans soup is a complete meal.

November 7, 2007  Print This Post   
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Comments

15 Responses to “Herbed chicken soup with assorted beans”
  1. Gay says:

    Can’t wait to try this one out. We usually have beans with pork soup. I think I can imagine the taste of this one already.

  2. Connie says:

    There was a time in my life when beans equals pork and beans or chili. hehehe Time to explore the world of beans. :)

  3. peterb says:

    Oh wow…This i really got to try. Do i have to use a whole chicken? Maybe i can use choice cuts and chicken bones. Hehe

  4. Connie says:

    Hi peterb, I suggest thighs (for the meat) and necks (for the bones). :)

  5. Ren says:

    This was a veeery nice recipe for one kind of beans, we can substitute this with kidney bean, lima bean or other kind of beans. More power to Connie!

  6. Les says:

    Hi Connie: can i substitute canned beans? I figured that you can add after tearing the chicken pieces and then simmering all again in the last step. what do you think?

  7. Janete says:

    Great recipe for my family & especially for my baby. I make my own baby food and I will definitely make this for my baby. I will use pinto & kidney beans. I wonder if this will work in slow cooker too…Thanks Connie!

  8. Connie says:

    You can try, Les. Haven’t cooked with canned beans before, actually, except for pork and beans.

    Janete, I think a slow cooker is ideal for this dish. :)

  9. Julius S. says:

    I used a slow cooker (Crock Pot) to prepare this recipe in the morning before heading out to work. When I cam home in the late afternoon, the aroma of the herbed Chicken greeted me at the door, a nice and hot bowl of soup to warm me up from the cold weather.

    I followed this recipe, but not too much on the beans, then added Egg Noddles to make a herbed chicken Noodle Soup, he, he. -Julius

  10. Connie says:

    Egg noodles and tomatoes went well together, Julius? Never tried doing that before.

  11. Julius S. says:

    Connie,

    I used only 1 -1/2 peices of large variety Tomato not Roma.
    The broth went well with the egg Noodles and tomato didn’t overwhelm the taste of the soup.

  12. Connie says:

    Oh, so you used less tomatoes. I just might try that soon. :) Tomorrow, it’s Pho for lunch.

  13. gay says:

    You know, I’ve been dreaming of cooking this dish. Just wait till I get home! I can only cook on weekends and I didn’t go home last weekend. So I’m gonna try this one the next time I go home. I’m imagining the taste of the beans already…

  14. Janete says:

    Hi Connie!

    Cooked this last night and I really liked it. I used less herb but it came out good. I will try it again with more herb. This is a wonderful winter food.

  15. claudine charie says:

    My hubby loves soup with beans but we used smoked pork hock which is so cheap here in US and add cubed hams. I’m doing your recipe today but using less tomato,added scrap pork, and slow cook it in the crock pot. The aroma is so wonderful and i just can’t wait! NAKAKAGUTOM!

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