Chicken and Chickpea Soup from Southern Spain (p. 142)

I've been slacking on my cooking -- we've been so busy lately I haven't been home enough nights to cook dinner!

I finally got a chance this week to make some soup, and it was definitely a time intensive recipe.

The recipe calls for a whole chicken, but since I was making a half quantity I used a small cornish game hen instead.

The hen was immersed in chicken stock (both the last of my homemade stock as well as some store-bought to supplement) and some water and simmered for about an hour and a half, until the meat was completely cooked. I removed the hen from the stock and separated the bones and skins from the meat. The chicken is added back into the soup later.

Using the same stock that the hen was cooked in, add dried chickpeas that have been soaked overnight along with garlic and cook for about 20 minutes. Once the chickpeas have begun to soften, stir in chopped carrots, celery, and tomatoes and continue cooking until the chickpeas are soft (about 25 minutes.)

Stir in rice and chili pepper and cook for another 10 minutes, until the rice has been cooked. Add chopped prosciutto and sea salt and spoon the cocido (basically, the soup) over pieces of the cooked chicken set into bowls. 

Garnish the soup with chopped hard boiled eggs and mint leaves.

Even just making half of the recipe, this made a ton of soup, most of which is now in my freezer. Luckily, it's really tasty and a great alternative to a more traditional chicken noodle soup. The egg and mint garnishes add a pop to it, and it makes for a really colorful bowl.

stock -- $2.29

eggs -- $.69 (I only needed one for this)

celery -- $1.99 (just needed one stalk)

prosciutto -- $4.29

cornish game hen -- $3.81

Total Cost of Chicken and Chickpea Soup from Southern Spain: $13.07