Autumn's Best Mulligatawny ( Chicken )

Ingredients

• 1 whole roasting chicken, cut in pieces
• 6-8 cups water
• 2 teaspoons salt, to taste
• 3-4 medium onions, coarsely chopped
• 1 stalk celery, coarsely chopped
• 3 carrots, peeled & chopped
• 2-3 tart apples, cored & chopped
• 3-4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil (or less)
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1-2 tablespoon curry powder, to taste
• 1 pinch cayenne, to taste
• salt & pepper
• 4-5 cups hot cooked rice
• chopped parsley, garnish

Directions

1. 1

   In soup-pot, cook chicken, water, salt and two of the onions, celery and carrots; bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover & simmer for at least a half-hour.

2. 2

   More finely chop the remaining onion(s), then in a large frying pan, saute onions in oil until transparent. Add chopped apples, continue sauteeing for 4-5 minutes, then add garlic to the pan.

3. 3

   Quickly sprinkle flour and curry powder over the apple-onion mixture, mix and cook for about 1 minute (maybe a bit more).

4. 4

   Remove one cup of broth from soup-pot, and pour slowly over the apple-onion mixture, stirring all the while; add another cup of broth if you'd like, and let it simmer for about 5 minutes.

5. 5

   Slowly pour roux from frying pan into soup-pot; stir well to blend.

6. 6

   Simmer for another half-hour.

7. 7

   SERVING SUGGESTION: Put 1/2 to 1 cup of rice in each bowl OR over egg noodles, spoon stew-soup over rice and garnish with parsley.

8. 8

   OPTIONAL VARIATIONS: Figure one piece of meat per serving. OR Use 3-4 cups of meat picked from the turkey carcass at Thanksgiving. OR Add giblets to the stock as it cooks for additional flavor. OR Use bite-size chunks of breast meat in place of the whole bird.

9. 9

   SUBSTITUTION: Replace the water with chicken soup stock or bouillon.

10. 10

    WARNING: Do NOT mix rice or noodles with the soup when you put away the leftovers -- the soup will turn into a soggy mess of curried pudding. Unless you LIKE that sort of thing -- .