Traditional Scottish Chicken Broth Recipe

This is a traditional Scottish soup and one of my all-time favourite things to eat, it is my idea of a comfort food and the ideal thing when you're feeling cold and tired, it's freezing outside or you've just started a cold. For me it brings back childhood memories of coming home from school in the pouring rain drenched to the skin, I'd open our front door and that's when that warming smell hit me - Chicken Broth - YES! My husband loves this with hot buttered toast but I just like a couple of slices of thick white bread, preferably homemade to chase away the Autumn/Winter blues.

It's extremely easy to make and although it takes a couple of hours to cook, it just putters away on the back of the stove during the day without needing any attention and the house will fill with the wonderful smell of chicken poaching amidst the lovely golden carrots, turning the soup a wonderful golden colour, the natural goodness of the ingredients speaks for itself as to how good it is for you, and of course it's a thousand times better than the soup that comes in cans.

Give this a try, you'll be very glad you did, and so will your family - they'll be able to taste the love that you've put into it.

4 litres of water

1 small Free Range Chicken

4 large Organic Carrots

2 cups of Beans and Pulses

2 medium Organic Onions or 1 huge Onion or 1 large Leek

half cup of pearl barley or half cup of white Basmati Rice

1-2 teaspoons of salt

1 teaspoon of ground black pepper

1 tbsp dried parsley

1 bouquet garni

Note: You can buy packets of soup mix beans/pulses in the supermarket, or you can mix your favourites together.

The night before you want to cook the broth, place 2 cups of mixed beans and pulses into a bowl with the ½ cup of pearl barley, add to that enough water to double the height of the mixture.

Make sure your bowl is large enough, the beans and pulses will swell and almost double in size soaking up the water. In the morning drain and rinse the mixture and again add water and leave to soak until you are going to be making the broth.

• Put 4 litres of cold water in a large pot and put over a medium heat.

• Rinse your chicken, I cut mine in half but you don't have to and place into the pot.

• Wash your hands thoroughly.

• Slice the onions or leek and place in the pot.

• Chop the carrots and place in the pot.

• Add a bouquet garni to the pot.

• Slowly bring this to a rolling boil and then turn down to simmer for an hour.

• Add the seasoning and dried parsley and cook for a further hour.

• Now comes a messy bit:

• Take the chicken out of the broth and place it in a large dish.

• Pull apart with two forks and place all the meat back in the broth.

• Leave for 10-15 minutes, taste and adjust the seasoning to your preference.

• Try eating a couple of the beans to see if they are tender enough - cook until the beans are soft and ready to eat.

This soup often tastes even better the next day, although you may have to add a touch more water overnight as the beans will continue to expand, but it won't taste watered down as the flavour will increase overnight.