Recipe Post: Random-Shit-I-Found-in-My-House Soup...Mmm!

Oh man, you guys.  I am a mad genius.

Growing up, I was always amazed by my mom's ability to throw some random leftovers together and make something more delicious out of them.  She's  mad wizard - Fact.  I've been getting better at this skill since I've been cooking regularly (even though I almost always cook using some kind of recipe template because I love to explore - but leftovers are a different business.)

So anyway, I was always jealous, but I no longer need to be.  I just made the best soup.  (Though, lesbianest, soup is hard to fuck up.  Sshhh.)  However, since I'm a storyteller, let me guide you through the process of mad science:

Step 1: Realize that your husband is too lazy to tear chunks of fully-cooked chicken off the carcass to stuff into his face, and therefor your leftover roast chicken will just never get eaten if you don't step in.  Decide to make soup out of it, even though Husband doesn't like soup, because you're hungry and lazy.



Step 2: Find an appropriately simple recipe from that thing you pinned once about uses for leftover chicken.

Step 3: Realize that you have everything except mushrooms.  Search for a replacement.  Find a bag of okra from a the Triassic period in your freezer.  Say, "The hell with it," and dump it right into the pot.

Step 4: Get feisty.  Decide that if we're going to have okra, we'd better have Cajun spice in there.  Decide you don't know how much to use, or if that would be very tasty.  Google a recipe quick.

Step 5: Disregard both recipes.

Step 6: Realize you have too much fluid and start dumping a bunch of crap in your pot. White beans from that one time you were fixated on cabbage for like a week and made this thing that was delicious, but then never made it again because there's only so much cabbage you can eat?  Into the pot. Tomatoes that you have in your fridge because you overestimated how many tomatoes could fit in a pita sandwich?  Into the pot.  Frozen corn that's been sitting in your freezer because there's too much to throw away, but not enough to eat?  Into the pot.  Wild rice that you used in the fall and then never had the energy to wait 55 minutes for again?  Into the pot.  Tomato juice that's been sitting in your liquor cabinet, waiting for the day, once a year, when you decide you want to make a bloody mary?  Into the pot.

Step 7: Profit.

It's beautiful.  It's delicious.  Look at that broth!  You could put shoes in that broth and it would look amazing. 
Here's a more coherent recipe:

Ingredients

• 4 TBS Butter
• 4 TBS Flour
• 1 Medium Onion, sliced and cut into 2 inch slivers
• 1 TBS Cajun Seasoning (Or more.  Can you ever really have too much?) (I use Joe's Stuff, you do you - Spice House in Tosa undoubtedly has an amazing blend.  I mean, I haven't tried it, but they're trustworthy folk when it comes to spices)
• 8 oz Frozen Okra (It's ok - it can't get slimy in soup)
• 4 oz Frozen Corn
• 1 Tomato
• 1 15-oz can White Beans
• 1 cup Wild Rice
• 11 (or more?) oz Tomato Juice (I used 2 of those little 5.5 oz cans)
• 4-6 cups Chicken Broth or Stock  (Homemade, if you have it!) 
• 1 Leftover Bird (Our carcass had the thighs/legs cut off, but was mostly intact otherwise, so...2 breasts-or-so worth of meat?) - You can pull the meat off first if you want, but I do this after.
• 1 cup Heavy Cream  

Directions

1. In a large Saute pan, start the roux...Over medium high heat, melt the butter. Once it is melted, add the flour and stir continuously for 2 minutes.Never stop stirring the roux.  This will get it to the "peanut butter" stage or so (that's where it turns the color of peanut butter, obvs)
2. Add the onions to the roux and stir for another 2 minutes, until the onions start to soften.
3. Add the spice and cook 1 more minute.
4. Add the veg, beans, rice, tomato juice, and broth/stock.  Plunk your chicken right down in the middle.
5. Bring it to a boil, then simmer for about an hour (so the rice cooks.  Wild rice sucks).
6. About 10 min before serving, pull out the carcass.  
7. Add the cream.  
8. Shred the meat off of the carcass with 2 forks, if you didn't do that before you started, and add it back into the soup.
9. Serve in bowls.  Attempt to eat without burning your tongue.  Fail.