Cocky Leeky Soup
I found this great historic Scottish cookbook while Steve and I were on our honeymoon (at the Scottish shop in Stratford). I had a frozen whole chicken ($5 sale) and one left over leek from last week’s recipe »
I also happened to watch an episode of Ricardo and Friends when he made Cock-a-Leekie soup with dumplings, which inspired me to give it a try. Here’s what I needed and how I made it:
1 whole chicken- 2 bay leaves
- 6-8 cups stock (beef, chicken or veggie)
- 1 leek
- 450g prunes, pitted and soaked over night
- ¼ cup barley
- Start by rinsing the barley under cold water. Place in a pot and cover with water. Boil over medium heat, about 3 minutes, skimming off any foam. Remove from set, cover and set aside for now.
- Cut off the green part of the leek. Finely slice the white portion to add in later.
- Place the chicken in a stockpot or Dutch oven, breast side down. Add the broth, leek greens and bay leaves (I also tossed in frozen carrots that I saved for stock). Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat and simmer gently until the chicken is cooked through, about 35 minutes, skimming any foam. Remove the chicken and vegetables from the broth and strain any remaining “bits”. Discard the vegetables and bits.
- Add the chopped leek pieces, prunes and drained barley to the hot broth. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat and simmer gently for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, bone the chicken and cut the meat into cubes.
- Add the meat back in, season with salt and pepper, and simmer another 10 minutes to heat through.
You can serve the soup separately as an appetizer and the meat and vegetables as a mean meal, or ladle the whole thing into a bowl and enjoy. This is my lunch for this week.
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