Remember when you roasted that Cowboy Chicken? Did you roast that Cowboy Chicken? Well, you should have because then you would have Cowboy Chicken remains on hand for making the stock for this INSANE soup.

This is a winter soup if there ever was one. Spicy and warming, full of good for you bone broth and vegetables --- it’s chicken soup who made friends with some sassy smoked jalapeños. The chipotles warm the chilliest of souls and bones.

Pro tip: freeze everything. — Pro tip: freeze *everything.*

When thinking about this soup, the immediate thought is to go straight to traditional mexican/latin vegetables and flavors. But as mentioned on Monday, my cooking is now much more controlled by the seasons. This meant --- no fresh peppers, no fresh tomatoes, no fresh corn. While it seems inhibitive, cooking with the seasons only makes me feel more creative. So I embraced the winter season and went with onions, carrots, delicata squash, and kale for my vegetables.

I’m cheating a little bit with the avocado for garnish as it is for sure not local, but I’ve professed my undying love for them before, so you understand, yes?

As with most soups, it’s better the next day, surprisingly I found that the chipotle mellows out a bit.

Lastly! I’ve realized that I’ve really only been posting chicken after chicken after chicken mains for months. About to get some variety up in here so soon!

Winter Chipotle Chicken Soup

Ingredients:

olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 carrots, sliced

1 delicata squash, cubed into 1-inch pieces (could also sub in sweet potato or butternut squash or acorn squash)

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 chipotles, minced

3 tablespoons tomato paste

2 to 3 tablespoons of chipotle sauce (in the can with the peppers) or to taste

6 cups chicken stock**

2 cups cooked chicken**

1 cup lacinato kale torn into 1-inch pieces

1 avocado, sliced (for garnish)

Directions:

Drizzle olive oil in the bottom of a large stock pot. Over medium heat, saute onions, carrots, and squash chunks. Cook until onions are translucent and beginning to get caramelized. Add in garlic and minced chipotles and saute just until garlic becomes fragrant, about 30 seconds.

Add in the tomato paste and chipotle sauce, and stir into the vegetables. You want to begin to brown the tomato paste/sauce. Let it start to caramelize. Have your stock at the ready. It will start to brown and get stuck to the bottom of the pot. Don’t fret! Do this until you just can’t stand it anymore and then splash a smidge of chicken stock in and deglaze the pan. It will sizzle and cook off and while it does this take your wooden spoon and begin to scrape up all that browned goodness from the bottom of the pot. Deglaze a bit more as needed to scrape up all brown bits and then add in the full amount of stock.

Add in the chicken and bring soup to a boil. Lower heat to a simmer and then add in the kale. Simmer until the kale is tender to the bite, about 10 minutes.

Remove from heat and serve soup with sliced avocado on top. A squeeze of lime wouldn’t hurt if you had it. If you can stand cilantro, go for it. These pickled red onions would not be out of place. Um, sour cream? Cause why the hell not. You know?

Yield: about 8 cups

**Note: I made my own chicken stock and used the meat from the carcass. Here’s how I did it: Throw that sucker, roasted (or raw) chicken in a stock pot with some carrots, a halved onion, some smashed garlic cloves, whole peppercorns and a bay leaf, cover it all with cold water, bring to a boil, then simmer away for a couple hours. Strain the broth and set aside, pick off the meat that’s left on the carcass and set that aside to use for the soup. Ta-da! Stock!