Ground Chicken Soup

I do not have much experience with cooking ground chicken, but I have eaten it a few times and quite like it IF it has enough flavour added.  I made soup the other day, using ground turkey and spinach.  It was good but could have used a little more flavour.  I am going to give you a recipe now that combines the recipe I made and the one I will make tomorrow.

Basic recipe~
1 1/2 pounds ground chicken. I bought mine at St. Lawrence Market and the nice man actually ground it for me. I love buying meat at an actual butcher shop.
1 large red onion, diced
1/2 fennel bulb, diced
two large yellow beets (if you can’t find them, just move on. They are not necessary) peeled and grated on a box grater.
1 large handful orange lentils
1  handful pot barley
8 cups chicken stock
5 cups spinach. Either use baby spinach or large spinach leaves that have been chopped
1 tsp. salt
1/4 cup chopped fresh dill
five sprigs of fresh thyme. I can’t be bothered to remove the thyme leaves so I throw in the sprigs and then remove them before serving the soup.

METHOD:

brown chicken on medium high heat
when it has cooked for 5 minutes, add onion, fennel, beets. stir. Cook the vegetables with the chicken, for approximately 10 more minutes.
add lentils, barley. stir
add chicken stock. stir
add spinach and herbs/seasoning and stir.
Bring to a gentle boil and reduce heat to medium or medium low. The liquid should be slowly simmering but you should see some action. If it is completely still, turn the heat up a bit.
Cover
Cook for about 1 hour, stirring every once in a while to prevent sticking.
Remember to keep it at a simmer. Taste it and if the lentils are al dente the soup is ready.

Options:
You know this already but let me repeat that I am pretty loose with my recipes. Meaning, if I don’t have this, but I have that, I just throw that in instead of this.
Got it?
Well, above is the basic recipe for this soup. However, keep reading for other options.

To ground chicken, you should always add an onion. Onions just give oomph to a dish.

**For a more southwestern soup, add a can of black beans that have been drained, add 1 cup of corn 5 minutes before serving, instead of dill add 1/4 cup chopped cilantro. Instead of pot barley, add two medium, diced potatoes. Add two cloves of garlic with the onions and throw in half a diced jalapeno if you like some heat.

**If you have some roasted vegetables sitting around in your fridge, throw those in. They will only add deliciousness to the soup.

If you feel that the soup is too thick, add water, half a cup at a time. Don’t add too much. You don’t want to drink the soup.

Have this for lunch with crackers and cheese or a sandwich or even on it’s own. If you choose the southwestern option, serve it with some tortilla chips.

Enjoy