Roasted Chicken Sans Noodle Soup
1 whole chicken
2 stalks celery, sliced
1/2 large onion, coarsely chopped
3-4 carrots, sliced into 2" lengths
1-2 parsnips, sliced into 2" lengths
1/2 lemon
1/2 whole head of garlic, sliced in half horizontally
coarse salt and pepper
Wash and dry chicken, then rub with olive oil and season inside and out with salt and pepper. Put halves of garlic and lemon inside cavity (after sprinkling lemon juice over the chicken and inside the cavity). Roast chicken in a 400 degree oven for 1 to 1 1/2 hours (reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees or when the meat is falling off the bone).
1 T. butter or oil
1/2 chopped onion
1 medium sweet potato, chopped
more carrots/parsnips, chopped
Melt butter and cook onion until soft. Add chopped sweet potatoes, carrots and/or parsnips and cook until almost soft.
When cool enough to handle, remove meat from the bones and put the carcass into a medium pot, adding just enough water to cover the bones. Simmer about an hour, then strain the stock through a sieve. Slice all of the vegetables roasted with the chicken into bite size pieces and add them to the stock along with the vegetables just sauteed and enough chicken meat to make a nice soup (I had one or one and a half breasts left over for sandwiches). Add up to 1 tsp. ground cumin and more salt and pepper for seasoning. Simmer just until warmed through, then serve. A dollop of plain yogurt and chopped avocado are nice garnishes.
