One Chicken Three Dinners (Day Three)

Pork and Shrimp Wonton Soup
One Chicken Three Dinners comes to an end with this deliciously warm and brothy soup. When I was growing up, I watched my mom make soup from scratch (broth included) and thought she was some sort of wizard. Perhaps there is a kind of magic to drawing savory flavor from the bones and bits of chicken we don't usually eat, but trust me, it's not difficult magic. This soup recipe makes good use of the leftover bones, skin, neck, and other chicken pieces reserved from the Buttery Roast Chicken recipe. I ended up with about 12 cups of broth, plenty for this wonton soup recipe and more! I used half of the broth for this recipe and froze the other half for a future soup recipe. And with Fall in full-swing, there will definitely be more soup recipes to come!

Ingredients
- 1 leftover chicken carcass, leftover skin, even the pan juices, broken into pieces
- 2 yellow onions, quartered
- 8 cloves garlic, peeled
- salt and pepper
- 2 small handfuls of assorted fresh herbs, whatever you have on hand will work (this time around I threw in a few whole sprigs of thyme, rosemary, Italian parsley, and marjoram)
- 1 package square wonton wrappers
- 2 cloves garlic, grated
- 1 tsp. fresh ginger, peeled and grated
- 1/2 lb. ground pork
- 6 prawns, peeled, deveined, and roughly chopped
- 1 tsp. sesame oil
- 1 egg, beaten
- 6 green onions, 3 minced and the remaining three sliced into bite-sized pieces
- 2 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. soy sauce, divided
- 1 tsp. cornstarch

HOMEMADE BROTH
Place leftover chicken parts in a large stockpot with quartered onions and handfuls of fresh herbs. Cover with water (about 12 cups) and bring to a boil over high heat. Cover the pot and reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer the soup for about 90 minutes. Season broth generously with salt and pepper to flavor it. It will probably take about 1-2 Tablespoons of salt to flavor it enough. Remove from heat and strain broth through a heavy-colander to remove solids. Discard solids. Return about half of the broth (about 6 cups) to the stockpot and reserve the rest. (Allow the reserved broth to cool completely before storing in a heavy-duty bag and freezing for later use.) Bring the broth in the stockpot to a boil.

WONTON SOUP
While the broth is coming to a boil, prepare the wontons. In a medium bowl combine pork, shrimp, sesame oil, minced green onions, egg, grated garlic, grated ginger, and 1 tsp. of soy sauce. Using clean hands, mix the ingredients until they are thoroughly combined. Lay out a piece of waxed paper to assemble wontons and mix together cornstarch with a few tablespoons of warm water in a small ramekin for sealing the wontons. Using one wrapper at a time, drop about 1 tsp. of pork and shrimp mixture into the center. Dip a finger in the cornstarch mixture and run it along 2 edges of the wrapper. Fold the wrapper in half to make a triangle, pressing down a dry edge against a dampened edge. Moisten one corner of the wonton triangle and bring a moist corner to a dry corner. Press together to create a little "Bishop's Hat" shape. Fill and fold remaining wontons until all the wrappers and filling have been used. Be careful not to overfill the wontons.

Place the assembled wontons into the boiling broth along with the remaining sliced green onions and 2 Tbsp. of soy sauce. Boil for about 10 minutes until the filling is cooked completely and the wontons float to the surface. Remove from heat and serve hot. Season broth with extra soy sauce if desired.

(If you don't have the time or leftovers to make homemade broth, just use about 6 c. of store-bought chicken broth and this makes for a very quick soup.)