Prairie Chicken Soup

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This is a big, hearty soup that works with most meats, not just prairie chickens. There are a few unusual ingredients, but I provide substitutes below. Once made, this will keep a week in the fridge.

Prep Time1

Cook Time2

Total Time3

Course: lunch, Main Course, Soup

Cuisine: American

Servings: servings

Author: Hank Shaw

Ingredients

BROTH

1 prairie chicken, or 2 pounds other meat (see headnotes)
2 bay leaves
2 ounces dried mushrooms (optional)
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
Stems from one bunch of parsley
Salt

SOUP

1/4 cup bacon fat, or any other fat or cooking oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 large carrot, diced
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 large clove of garlic
Salt
2 teaspoons thyme or savory
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup dried, cracked corn (or regular corn kernels, see below)
1/2 pound turnips, ideally small ones, cut into chunks
6 to 12 ounces egg noodles, "dumpling" style if possible
1 16- ounce can, great northern beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1/2 cup chopped chives and celery leaves (optional)
Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Instructions

BROTH

Cut the bird into serving pieces and cover with water. Bring to a boil, then dump the water and reserve the bird. Scrub the scum out of the pot. This process makes a light, clean broth with no weird debris in it.
Refill the pot with cold water and add back the bird. Cover by about 3 inches of water and let this steep, steaming, until the meat is tender. This can take 4 hours with an old prairie chicken, but only about 90 minutes with a store-bought chicken. It's important to not boil the broth or it will get chalky and cloudy.
When the meat is close to being done, add the remaining broth ingredients except for salt and cook this gently for 90 minutes more. Fish out the bird and shred all the meat off it. Reserve.
Strain the broth through a strainer with a paper towel set inside to keep it as clean as possible. Only now do you add salt, little by little. You should have a gallon or so. This whole process can be done up to 5 days before you serve the soup.

SOUP

In a soup pot, add the bacon fat and set the burner to medium-high. Add the onion and carrot and cook until soft, but not overly browned, about 8 minutes. Add the celery and garlic and cook another 4 minutes, stirring occasionally, then stir in the tomato paste. Cook this a few minutes. Add the thyme.
Add the cracked corn, the shredded meat, and lots of broth, at least 2 quarts, and more if you want. Simmer this a few hours until the corn is soft. If you are using regular corn kernels, add them and the turnips now and simmer until the turnips are tender.
Add the noodles and canned beans and cook until the noodles are ready. You might need to add more broth. Stir in chopped herbs, add salt if needed, and then the pepper. Serve steaming hot.

Notes

This soup freezes well, but only before the noodles go in. If you want to freeze some, leave out the noodles until you serve.

Keys to Success and Shortcuts

Use premade broth to poach the bird to save time.
Once cooked and shredded, you can keep the meat in the fridge a few days before making the soup.
You can also cook the cracked corn and prairie turnips a day or two ahead of time.
If you have real prairie turnips, they need to be soaked overnight and then cooked a long time. Add them when making the broth. Also, there's a stringy center to them that needs to be pulled out when you chop them.
Any combination of herbs you like will work here, or you can add greens like spinach, chard, lambsquarters or kale.
I wouldn't get mad at the addition of a little hot sauce at the end, but that might not be very Nebraskan...

Nutrition