Flu Chaser soup

"If I saw that on your blog, I would not think it was delicious, but it is delicious." Says the B. I think it looks pretty delicious. In response to the continuing winter weather, and the B saying he was feeling under the weather, I made Chicken Flu Chaser Soup, which is the best chicken soup I have ever EVER had! Its full of ginger, fresh lemon juice, roasted garlic, and mint. All in abundant amounts, to chase your cold away! I highly recommend getting yourself up and making some, especially if you're fighting a cold.
Be warned, it makes an ass-ton of soup, so I didn't follow the recipe portions exactly and got a little less than an army's worth. I also threw some swiss chard in there, which made for a great green addition.

Spicy Chicken Rice Flu Chaser Soup

(New England Soup Factory Cookbook)

3-4 heads of garlic, roasted (About 1/2 cup of cloves squeezed out of the heads of garlic.)
1 whole chicken, about 5 pounds
1 large Spanish onion, peeled and diced
6 carrots, peeled and sliced
3 ribs celery, diced
12 cups chicken stock, plus additional if needed (I used 13 cups)
3/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon lemon zest
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh mint leaves, or 2 teaspoons dried mint
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 Tablespoons grated fresh ginger root (Or less if you have good ginger root.)
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (Don't worry, it doesn't make the soup hot, just lifts the flavor)
2 bay leaves
1/4 heaping cup of chopped fresh basil
1/4 cup fresh chopped mint
3 cups cooked white or jasmine rice
Kosher salt, to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut about 1/4 or 1/2 off the top of each head of garlic. Put cut sides up in a dish, drizzle with oil and cover with a lid or foil. Bake about 50 minutes, until garlic is soft, brown, and caramelized. Let cool then squeeze the cloves out of the heads until you have about 1/2 cup of garlic. Mash the cloves and set aside. Reserve some whole cloves to garnish the soup if you wish.

In a stock pot place the chicken, onion, carrots, and celery. Pour the chicken stock over the chicken and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Add roasted garlic cloves, lemon juice, ginger root, lemon zest, mint, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, and bay leaves.

Reduce heat to medium and simmer 2 1/2 hours or until chicken is very tender. (My chicken was tender after about 2 hours.)

Remove chicken carefully and place on a plate to cool.

Remove soup from heat. If it looks too thick, add 1 to 2 cups stock or water. When chicken is cool enough to handle, remove skin and bones and add the meat back to the soup. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Taste, adding more lemon juice or other spices, if you like. Add basil, mint, rice, and salt. Remove bay leaves. Stir and serve. Note: To prevent rice from getting too mushy, I add my rice to each serving bowl and ladle the soup over it.

Yield: 8 to 10 servings

* The original recipe calls for 20 peeled whole cloves garlic, combined with 1 1/2 cups olive oil and baked on a dish, covered with foil, at 375 degrees for 50 minutes. Drain off the oil when done and mash cloves with a fork

(recipe via What Did You Eat?)