On Saturday, November 7, the team got together to work on our charity soup event and spent 7 hours working on the soup and stew. This workday comes with some special meaning. When I was in high school, I had a wonderful friend George Pirrie, who’s family would have me and several friends over on the weekends for full days on the lake and then dinner in the evenings. I remember standing in their kitchen and George’s mom Bobbie would ask “who is cooking and who is cleaning up?” So why does this day bring on new meaning? George’s dad George Pirrie II passed away on November 6. George Sr. taught me how to grill things like salmon and whole chickens. This family was my second family and was my inspiration that started me on this path where I am today. I will always have a special place in my heart for Pirrie family. Here is the list of work items that we accomplished.

1. Cleared the fat ring from the top of previously made stock

2. Divided out the previously prepped vegetables which included:

   1. Onions

   2. Celery

   3. Carrots

3. Cleaned and chopped 40 pounds of potatoes

4. Coated with flour mixture and cooked off previously prepped beef

5. Coated with herbs and cooked off previously prepped chicken

6. Shredded roasted chicken

7. Assembled chicken soup

8. Assembled beef stew

9. Finished chicken stew with fresh herbs

10. Finished stew with fresh herbs

For information on how to make the stock, please refer to my stock tip post. This post focuses on a chicken stock, but you can substitute red wine for white, roasted beef bones for chicken bones and beef base for chicken base and you will have a wonderful stock. I am going to focus on the soups with this article. For the charity soup event, we need 75 quarts of both the beef stew and chicken soup.

Chicken Noodle Soup ingredients:

10 gallons of homemade chicken stock

60 pounds of roasted chicken

1/2 case of celery

1/2 case of carrots

20 lbs. of onions

1 case of egg noodles

1/2 cup fresh thyme

1 gallon of white wine

1 cup of olive oil

1 1/2 cups of dried thyme

1/4 cup of salt, pepper and garlic powder

1/4 cup of Italian seasoning

Beef Stew ingredients

50 lbs. of cubed beef (We used knuckle and top round)

1/2 case of celery

1/2 case of carrots

20 lbs. of onions

40 lbs. of diced potatoes

1/2 cup fresh thyme

1 gallon of red wine

1 1/2 cups of dried thyme

1/4 cup of salt, pepper and garlic powder

1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour

1 bottle of Worchestshire

1/2 bottle of kitchen bouquet

Chicken Soup preparation

To start, with a slotted spoon, clear the fat off the top of stock. You should always remove the fat from the top of a cooled stock in order to control the amount of fat and texture in the soup. Once the fat is cleared, place the stock into two large stock pots and begin heating.

While the stock is warming, divide the vegetables in half.

After the vegetables are divided and stock is boiling, add equals parts of vegetables to each pot with chicken stock. Add the white wine equally in each pot and cook for about an hour.

While stock with vegetables is warming, begin to coat the chicken for roasting. In a bowl, mix dried thyme, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Mix the seasoning thoroughly with a whisk. In another bowl, place one of the chicken breasts and coat with the olive oil. After coating with olive oil, sprinkle with the seasoning mixture. Place the coated chicken on baking pan prepped with non-stick spray. Make as many trays as needed. We made 5 trays.

Heat your oven to 350 degrees and place your trays in the preheated oven and cook for 30-35 minutes. Make sure the chicken is cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees.

After letting the chicken cool to the touch, begin to shred it with forks.

After shredding all 60 pounds of the roasted chicken, then add equally to each pot and let the soup come to a boil. Now the last step to complete soup assembly is to add the noodles.

Once the noodles have been added, stir them into the soup in order to get the noodles distributed equally.

After letting the noodles cook 10-15 minutes, to finish the soup, cover the top with fresh thyme to provide a fresh herb flavor.

Beef Stew Preparation

Just like the chicken stock, using a slotted spoon, remove the fat disk from the top of the stock and divide equally into two large stock pots. Begin warming the stock.

While stock is warming, combine flour, dried thyme, garlic powder, salt and pepper to make a flour dredge. Dredge all of the cubed beef with the flour mixture. On a baking sheet sprayed with non-stick spray, place the beef evenly on trays. We made 10 trays with the 50 pounds of dredged beef.

In a preheated 350 degrees oven, roast the beef off for 18-20 minutes or until it turns nice a chocolate brown color. Using a scraper, scrape all of the beef and dredge mixture on each tray into a pan.

Take all of the vegetables and add them to the stock pots along with the red wine. Divide the vegetables and red wine equally between the pots. Let the mixture come to a boil.

Now add the pans of the roasted meat equally into the stock pots and let the mixture again come to a boil.

Add the Worchestshire and kitchen bouquet equally into each stock pot. Let the stew cook for a minimum for 2 hours.

To finish, add fresh thyme on top for the fresh herb flavor.

Bon Appetit!