If there were witchcraft: Instant Pot™ Cock-a-leekie Soup

Bryan's Instant Pot™ Cock-A-Leekie Soup

Two days ago, Kevin roasted a small chicken in the oven. It was delicious, but even though it was very small, there was still leftover chicken. I could have made a salad, but we are living with soup weather, and since I had a portion of a leek left over as well, I thought, "Why not make Cock-a-Leekie Soup?" Now understand, I have never made this particular soup before, so I wasn't sure just what to expect, but chicken soup is good, right? And I like leeks, so what could go wrong? As it turns out, nothing.

I wanted to make the soup in the Instant Pot™, so I looked up a recipe on line, just to be safe. If you want to try the original recipe, you can find it here on eatathomecooks.com If you'd like to try my Yes I Used Leftovers recipe, here it is. Now I don't know about you, but if I'm going to be eating delicious home-made soup, I want some equally delicious home-made bread to go with it. In this case, I made baguettes following Dan Leader's recipe for 4-Hour Baguettes. I've made this recipe several times, and it's never failed me. Rather than type it out, I'll just send you to the on line site where I found it, Food52.com. You may have to sign up for a Food52 membership, but it's free and well worth the time.

One and a quarter baguettes

RECIPE:

Bryan's Instant Pot™ Cock-A-Leekie Soup

Prep time: 5 minutes, depending on what you have in the fridge

Pressure Cooker Time: 15 minutes under pressure, plus 12 minutes release time (and of course, however much time it takes your pressure cooker to come up to pressure).

Servings: I don't know. How hungry are you? Are you one of those people who think that 1 pint of Ben and Jerry's is a single serving? The original recipe claims that it serves 8. I eat more than they do.

Ingredients:

Left over shredded chicken ( I had about 2 cups)
1 1/2 leeks, chopped and cleaned
5 carrots, pared and chopped
1/3 cup pearl barley
dash onion powder
1 bay leaf
dash of dried thyme
2 quarts chicken broth (I used Better Than Bouillon mixed in hot water)
Salt and Pepper to taste (I forgot to add this, but Kevin added it after cooking)
Dried prunes, diced, for topping, optional

Instructions:

Place chicken in the Instant Pot™
Add leeks, carrots, barley, herbs and spices to the pot.
Pour broth over all ingredients and stir to make sure the Better Than Bouillon is well mixed.
Set Pressure Cooker for 15 minutes. When time is up, let it release pressure naturally for 10 minutes, the turn the valve to release remaining pressure.
Remove lid and serve, adding the diced prunes if desired.

Now Kevin thought the prunes would not be a good idea, so he didn't add any. I, on the other hand, wanted to check out just what they flavor they might add, so I chopped up about 5 small prunes and added that into my bowl. Near as I could tell, they added a very small amount of sweetness to the soup, and I will add them again when I have the left over soup for lunch.

The baguette recipe, by the way, makes three nice sized baguettes, and at this point (10 am the next day), we have only one baguette left. That's right, between Kevin and me, for supper last night and breakfast this morning, we already ate two of the baguettes. Your mileage my vary.

And while I'm crowing (cock-a-leekie, get it?), let me tell you I just got the notification that one of my photographs has been chosen to appear in the January/February issue of Montana Outdoors, the magazine published by the State of Montana's Department of Fish Wildlife and Parks. The picture they chose is shown below, and you can get your own copy of it by visiting my on-line sales gallery by clicking here at RedBubble. I have chosen to show it as a Metal Print, but you can have it in any of a number of forms, including a mini-skirt, a clock, coffee mugs, or even a bath mat and shower curtain. Just check out RedBubble. And the photo itself? One of my all-time favorite photographs, one that I took at South Sandstone Reservoir, south of Plevna in Fallon County, Montana, back in 2007.