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Roast chicken and onion soup, garlic and thyme croûtons

I never roast just one single chicken at home these days – always at least two, because I just love cold roast chicken so much. In fact, I have been known to eat almost half a cold chicken whilst standing at the open fridge door. The other advantage of this (having the bones for stock that is, not scoffing from the fridge) is that you have two carcasses to use, together with all their fabulous gelatinous juices. These form the basis for this excellent wintery soup.

If you find yourself only ever cooking one chicken at once, simply freeze the carcass each time and excavate a couple when you fancy making this soup.

Serves 6

a little oil or fat

6 fresh chicken wings, each wing chopped into 3–4 pieces

12 button mushrooms, cleaned and sliced

1 bunch each of fresh thyme and tarragon, chopped

3 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped

125ml dry white wine or cider

1 each of roughly chopped leek, celery and carrot

2 chopped roast chicken carcasses, ideally with wings attached, and any leftover gravy

150g unsalted butter, plus extra for the croûtons

4 large onions, peeled and sliced into rings (not chopped)

salt and freshly ground black pepper

2–3 thick slices of good-quality fresh white bread – sourdough is ideal

First make the chicken stock. Heat the oil or fat in a large pan or stockpot and sauté the chicken wings until beautifully golden. Add the mushrooms, half the thyme (stalks and all) and half the garlic. Continue cooking for a few minutes until the aroma becomes too delicious to bear. Add the wine or cider and cook until all the liquid has cooked off. Add the chopped vegetables, the chicken carcasses, any leftover chicken juices and gravy and top up with water to cover. Bring to a gentle simmer, skim and cook very gently for about 1 hour. The stock should not boil.

Whilst this is cooking, heat the butter in a separate roomy pan and sweat the onion rings in the butter over a medium heat until they begin to caramelise. You will need to agitate them often and this will take in the region of 45 minutes. After a while, the butter will become clear and oily – turn the heat down and keep going. The onions will begin to catch on the bottom of the pan, so be careful to scrape up the residue and mix in with the rest. When the onions have reached a dark golden colour, season well with salt and pepper and drain off the butter by putting the whole lot into a roomy sieve or colander. Discard the butter. Return the drained onions to the pan and strain over enough chicken stock to generously cover the onions – you will not need all the stock and it can be kept for another purpose. Remember, the soup should be generous with the onions. Reheat the soup and adjust the seasoning. The soup is now finished and you can turn your attention to the croûtons.

At Chez Bruce we take the cooking of croûtons very seriously indeed and woe betide the junior cook who gives them insufficient attention. Cut the bread into 2cm thick slices (that is, considerably thicker than you would for a sandwich, say). Cut these slices into large cubes. In a large non-stick frying pan, fry and turn the croûtons gently in foaming butter until evenly golden on all sides – their size and freshness will mean that they will be crisp on the outside and soft in the centre. When they are golden, season the pan and add the remaining chopped garlic and thyme leaves. Allow the thyme and garlic to get to know each other – the faint crackling sound of the thyme leaves will indicate the acquaintance has been made.

Add the chopped tarragon to the hot soup and serve with two or three of these croûton whoppers per person and some of the garlicky butter from the pan strewn over the whole. Damn fine, this.