Broke-Ass Recipes: Cock-a-leekie

Though cock-a-leekie is considered Scotland’s official soup, it was adapted from a French recipe using chicken, broth and onions through replacing the latter with its gentler taxonomic relative, the leek, which has been widely cultivated in Scotland since the Middle Ages. Though the first recorded instance of this change dates to 1598, it wasn’t called cock-a-leekie until the first half of the 18th century, with the first documented use of the name taking place in 1737. The soup was served as lunch to First Class passengers aboard the RMS Titanic on April 14, 1912, its final, fateful day.

It is a hearty, comforting dish to eat on cold, dreary days, and indeed healthy, as it is low in fat and carbohydrates, but high in protein and other nutrients. Though the ingredients are widely available and inexpensive and the soup is easy to make, the cooking time may run long. Nonetheless, your patience will be richly rewarded.

Trader Joe’s sells pre-cut leeks, packaged in pairs, which easily saves time on preparation. Usually, one of them mixes proportionally with 32 ounces of broth, two stalks of celery, one can of carrot coins and 20 ounces of canned chicken. They come out of the box looking quite clean, but it is still a good idea to cut them in half lengthwise, separate the layers and run them under the cold water tap to get rid of any dirt that may be left behind. Once that’s finished, chop them finely.

Next, melt one tablespoon of butter per leek used in a soup pot over low heat. Toss in the chopped leek and cook for about five minutes or until the pieces soften up. Add the chicken broth and season to taste with crushed thyme, black pepper, minced garlic and/or onion. If you want, add 187 milliliters of Chardonnay or Pinot grigio per 32 ounces of broth, then raise the heat and drop a few bay leaves into the pot.

While you wait for the pot to boil,

open the canned chicken, drain the water into the pot with the broth, replace it with Worcestershire sauce, and set that aside to marinade for about fifteen minutes or more. 

Next, cut up the celery and add the carrot coins. If you cannot find them canned, chop up a bunch of pre-peeled baby carrots instead. Due to my limited pantry, refrigerator and counter space, I certainly prefer to work with canned, pre-prepared vegetables, especially since the packages of the fresh stuff often contain more material than I plan to use.

Once the broth begins to boil, let the bay leaves steep for about five minutes or so, then carefully fish them out with a fork and add the carrots, celery and chicken. If you want, toss a handful or two of plain rolled oats or pearl barley into the broth to serve as a thickening agent. There is a tradeoff between the two. Pearl barley is less expensive than rolled oats, but it takes longer to soften in boiling liquid. It also contains gluten, which can trigger an autoimmune response in people who suffer from Celiac disease. Oatmeal, on the other hand, is more likely to be gluten-free, but some companies produce their product in facilities where cross-contamination may occur, so definitely read those labels very carefully. Fortunately, a quick Google search can turn up lists of oatmeal brands trusted to be gluten free.

Moreover, If you do decide to use canned carrots and chicken, definitely opt for a low-sodium chicken broth, as canned meats and vegetables often use salt as a preservative.

After the chicken has been added, reduce the heat and let the soup simmer for at least an hour, or until the carrots are nice and tender. Once that’s finished, turn off the heat, let the soup stand for a couple minutes, get yourself a bowlful and enjoy.

So what are we going to spend on this?

I suppose it depends on how much cock-a-leekie you want to make If you want to get the most out of the three dollars you will spend on the pair of leeks, and if you have a big enough pot and access to a big enough refrigerator, you will need to buy two 32-ounce boxes of chicken broth (two bucks each, so four for both) and four ten-ounce cans of pre-cooked chicken breast, which will come to about $13. So, for the core ingredients, we are $20 deep.

After that, it’s an optional five bucks for a decent bottle of white wine, $1.50 each for thyme, minced garlic and onion and four dollars each for bay leaves, Target store-brand Worcestershire sauce (which does the job just fine), black pepper and a box of butter. For two cans of carrot coins or one bag of peeled baby carrots, three bucks. For a bag of celery hearts, $2.50. if you were to pick up an 18-ounce canister of plain own-brand rolled oats from Safeway, that will be $3.50. On the other hand, pearl barley is two bucks per pound at Target.

Assuming you were planning to use both leeks to make one big pot, that you wanted to add the white wine and that you didn’t already have the black pepper, minced onion or garlic from trying other recipes found on this website, you’d end up spending approximately $55 to $60. As steep a price as this may seem, if you do end up using both the leeks, half a gallon of chicken broth, half a bottle of white wine, a couple pounds of chicken and everything else, you’ll have enough cock-a-leekie to last you at least two days. Furthermore, making this much yields about ten eight-ounce portions, which lands the price per serving between $5.50 and six bucks – at least a dollar less than what you’d pay for that much of the soup du jour at a typical diner.

By James Conrad.

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