Name: Portuguese Chicken Broth with Rice, Mint and Lemon (Canja)
Yield: Serves 4–6
Cuisine: Portuguese
Ingredients: rind of 1 lemon (use a potato peeler); salt and freshly ground black pepper; a carrot, an onion, 2 celery sticks – all roughly chopped; juice of 1 lemon; 200 g/7 oz rice (or rice-shaped pasta); some parsley and mint stalks; 2 large chicken breasts, washed; 1 boiling chicken or 1 kg/2¼ lb chicken wings or drumsticks, washed; a dozen mint leaves, chopped; some bay leaves and peppercorns

Preparation info

Serves
4–6

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The Eagle Cookbook

By David Eyre

Published 2009

About

This is almost Portugal’s national dish, at least in the down-home section. It’s a kind of always-available-even-if-too-late-for-lunch restaurant dish. Anyway, this is not an apology; it’s the best of all chicken soups, with proven restorative qualities.

Ingredients

2 large chicken breasts, washed
rind of 1 lemon (use a potato peeler)
a dozen

Method

For the stock, put all the ingredients in a large pan, cover with about 3 litres/5 pints cold water and bring to a gentle simmer. Simmer for an hour but don’t let it boil, even for a minute, or the fat wil