Chicken Stew

Saturday night, the mercury fell, and fell, and fell, until we were left with just 4 degree temperatures. Of course, I had been warned about this, and had decided upon a nice, warming meal of some kind of soup. I really wanted stew, but had two chicken carcasses in my fridge, so they were the basis of the meal. The kids laugh at Mom for saving "scrap", but it's my kitchen, my refrigerator, and if you don't like it and are out of high school, go buy your own food. (If you're under 18, eat what I give you and at least pretend to like it.) Yes, I'm mean like that.

CHICKEN STEW

2 Chicken carcasses
Water to cover (about 6 cups)
1 tablespoon salt
2 carrots, quartered
2 onions, one quartered, one minced
2 potatoes, shredded
2 cups cooked chicken, cut up
3 sweet potatoes, cubed
2 carrots, sliced thin
2 cups frozen spinach
1 cup uncooked rice

Cook the chicken carcasses in the water with the salt, quartered onion and quartered carrots for 3 hours or so, until they fall apart. When the carcasses start to fall apart, pour through a strainer lined with cheesecloth into a clean pot. Add the shredded potatoes and minced onion, return to a boil, and simmer for an hour. Add the sweet potatoes, carrots and cooked chicken, along with any chicken picked from the bones, and cook until the veggies are tender. Add the rice, cook for 10 minutes, add the spinach and cook another 10 minutes. You may want to add more water or salt at this point, because the chicken stew will be very thick. Serve with fresh ground black pepper.
Ryan was very enthusiastic about this stew, my dearly beloved and Mark didn't complain (which means they liked it well enough), and Patrick griped (no surprise). Served with a nice crusty French or Italian bread, it was a nice meal on a cold night.

Hope you all get some sunshine and relief from the cold today!