Cock-A-Leekie Soup

Photo: Sweetwatercooks

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 clove garlic minced

3 slices nice fatty bacon diced

1/2 a chicken (about 2 lbs.)

5 cups or 6 of chicken stock and or water

6 leeks white and green parts chopped

garni of 1 bay leaf, parsley and thyme

1 teaspoon brown sugar

5 or 6 potatoes quartered

couple handfuls pitted dates

s&p

Preparation

Heat olive oil in big soup pan.

Add garlic and bacon and saute for 2 or 3 minutes (you don't want to crisp the bacon, just release some of the fat and get it started.)

Add the 1/2 chicken as a whole (skin and all - for the sake of flavour.)

Add stock/water.

Bring to a boil and ladle off any scum.

Add leeks and potato.

Add garni.

Add brown sugar.

Reduce heat to a simmer.

Simmer for 2-3 hours (add dates in the last hour to 30 minutes.)

When the chicken is falling off the bone remove it and strip the meat from the bones, chop into bite sized chunks and add back to soup.

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About

Cock-a-leekie is a very traditional Scottish fall or winter soup dating back as far as the 15th and 16th centuries. I've stayed close to tradition with these three exceptions:
* There is no garlic ingredient in the traditional recipes. However, I'm pretty sure garlic wasn't being used for anything more than medicinal purposes in the 16th century. Poor people didn't know what they were missing! Also bacon is traditionally an optional ingredient, but we all know everything's better with bacon!

** Potatoes are not a part of the traditional dish. In fact, they didn't have tatties in the highlands back then (learned that from my Scottish books.) The Scots would have used rice or barley to thicken the soup. But, I'm not a big fan of either ingredient in abundance in my soups. I do like potatoes however and I especially like the way they just fall apart into the soup in this recipe. Great texture!

*** The traditional recipe calls for prunes. Dates just sounded much more appealing to me.