Cock-a-Leekie Soup

Seeing as how it is almost Burn's night (January 25th) and as how I haven't posted a recipe in a while I thought I would share one for cock-a-leekie soup. This is a traditional Scottish soup that is often included as the starter for a Burn's night supper. It's a very simple recipe and this is just one of probably thousands and some even including prunes. I think this simple preparation works best as a starter. It's not too heavy and you need to save room for the haggis(great chieftain o' the puddin' clan) and the bashed neeps and tatties.

The traditional method involves the slow simmering of a whole chicken but a cup up chicken will do the trick as well... you just want to be sure you have both white and dark meat.

Ingredients

1 pound or so of chicken breasts and thighs, skinned
4 cups chicken stock,
2 bay leaves
2 oz. or 1/3 cup long grain rice,
2 medium leeks, thinly sliced (using only the white a light green parts)
2 carrots, coarsely grated
1 pinch ground cloves,
1 tbsp chopped parsley
coarsely ground black pepper to taste
1 tsp fine sea salt or to taste (depends on how salty your broth is...taste it)

Process

Place the chicken in a pan with the stock and bay leaves. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes.

Skim the surface of the soup and discard any scum that has formed. Add the vegetables, rice, cloves, and salt, bring back to the boil, reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for another 30 minutes.

Remove the bay leaves and discard. While not absolutely necessary I like to remove the chicken, remove the meat from the bones and return the meat to the soup as it makes it a little nicer to eat.

This will make 4 nice bowls of soup.