A vegetable-laden soup with chicken, plus croutons and a spicy sauce (it’s French).
A post from Carolyn. This soup recipe has been in my repertoire for a long time. Just now I looked at my MasterCook soup file and see that it contains 458 recipes. That’s both soup recipes I’ve tried and those I haven’t. This one came from a Phillis Carey cooking class many years ago – I’m guessing 15. And why I’ve not made it more often, I don’t know (maybe because of the extra steps to make the sauce?), because it’s full of good flavor.
Bouillabaisse (pronounced boo-ya-bess) traditionally is a fish and seafood soup. So why not adapt it to chicken, eh? What sets this one apart is the use of saffron and the spicy rouille (pronounced roo-eel). And it contains some bread to thicken the sauce (baguette, to be exact) and does involve that extra step to whiz up the rouille in a blender. I changed the recipe just a little bit – I like celery in soups, not only for flavor, but for texture. I had a whole red bell pepper and decided I wasn’t going to roast it (too much trouble) so I merely used some in the soup and some in the sauce. The recipe called for potatoes – I didn’t have any – and I’d usually leave them out anyway, but they are traditional. There’s also a strip of orange peel in the soup. That is unusual, too. Up top, in that picture, you can’t see the little baguette slices – they’re underneath the rouille that I dolloped on top. The rouille adds a TON of flavor to this – don’t even think about making this without doing the sauce. And you can drizzle the rouille all over the soup – not just on the little croutons – the soup is enhanced so much with the garlicky flavors from the sauce.
The sauce, the rouille, contains saffron too, along with lots of garlic, Dijon, mayo, oil, salt and a dash of cayenne. But you start with some of the broth from the soup – first you add that to a shallow bowl, add the saffron (so it will develop its unique flavors in the warm liquid) and the garlic, then the bread – so it soaks up the liquid. You let that sit for awhile and the garlic sort-of cooks a little (barely), then the batch goes into the blender container, along with Dijon, the red bell pepper, mayo, 1/2 cup of EVOO, and some salt and cayenne to taste. The bread gives the sauce a little bit of substance, a thickener, of sorts. Do blend awhile to make sure it purees the way it should and it emulsifies.
You can make the sauce while the soup is simmering. You’ll likely have more sauce than you need for the number of soup servings, and I recommend you use the leftovers as a drizzle on roasted or steamed vegetables – like broccoli, cauliflower, green beans – even potatoes! The sauce is SO good. The garlic predominates, obviously.
What’s GOOD: so many layers of flavor – the sweet from the onions, the nuance of the saffron, the texture from the celery and chicken. And then there’s the rouille – the star of the show, in my opinion, which is very garlicky.
What’s NOT: nothing, really. Maybe that it takes a little longer to make, because of the sauce, but you won’t regret it once you’ve whizzed it up in the blender. I have broccoli in the refrigerator now, which will be enhanced with some of that great leftover sauce.
printer-friendly PDF and MasterCook file (click link to open recipe)
* Exported from MasterCook *
Chicken Bouillabaisse with Spicy Garlic Rouille
Recipe By: Adapted from a Phillis Carey recipe
Serving Size: 7
SOUP:
1/4 cup olive oil
1 whole onion — finely chopped
1 cup celery — diced
8 whole chicken thighs, without skin — boneless
14 1/2 ounces diced tomatoes — canned
2/3 cup red bell pepper — diced
2 cups chicken broth
1/4 cup vermouth
2 whole garlic cloves — peeled
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon fennel seed
1 strip orange peel
1 whole bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon saffron
2 medium potatoes — White Rose (optional)
4 whole carrots
14 thin slices of baguette, toasted
Salt and pepper — to taste
ROUILLE:
1/4 cup liquid from soup pot
1/4 teaspoon saffron — crumbled
2 whole garlic cloves — parboiled
3/4 cup French bread — crustless, cubed
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/3 cup red bell pepper — diced
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt and cayenne pepper to taste
1. SOUP: heat olive oil in a large pot and sauté onion for about 5 minutes or until softened. Add chicken pieces, cut in 3/4 inch cubes, and toss for 2 minutes to brown, but not cook through. Add canned tomatoes, broth, wine, garlic, saffron and herbs. Then add carrots, bell pepper and potatoes (if using), season to taste with salt and pepper and bring to a simmer. Lower heat, cover and cook until chicken and vegetables are cooked through, about 30-45 minutes.
2. To serve: place 2 toasted baguette slices in each soup bowl. Ladle soup on top and then drizzle with the rouille.
3. ROUILLE: During the soup cooking time, ladle out the 1/4 cup of soup liquid into a 2-cup bowl, then add the saffron and garlic. Let stand for 5 minutes. Add the cubed bread and let stand for at least 10 minutes to allow bread to soften and absorb the liquid. Place mixture in a food processor and puree. Add the mustard, red bell pepper and mayonnaise, then puree again. Drizzle in the oils until an emulsion forms. Season with about 1/2 teaspoon salt and a dash of cayenne or to taste.
NOTE: You’ll have leftover rouille, most likely. If so, drizzle it on hot broccolini, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans or potatoes.
Per Serving (this seems high – perhaps some of the ingredients aren’t reading the nutrition correctly): 617 Calories; 34g Fat (49.7% calories from fat); 39g Protein; 38g Carbohydrate; 5g Dietary Fiber; 156mg Cholesterol; 742mg Sodium; 8g Total Sugars; 0mcg Vitamin D; 78mg Calcium; 4mg Iron; 1088mg Potassium; 420mg Phosphorus.

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