Chicken pea soup with rye ale

Another one in my beer series - chicken pea soup with rye ale!

This is another instance of me failing to read a recipe before I attempt it.  I did read enough ahead to know that you have to soak the dried split peas for 8 hours, but I failed to notice that you can't make the soup while you roast the chicken - you need the chicken drippings to make the soup.  (F#%&!)


Anyway, it turned out good, it just took a long time.  What I did was:

1. Soak peas for 8 hours.
2. Cover chicken in minced garlic and olive oil and roast for 1 hour.
3. Let chicken cool briefly and pick meat off of breast, legs, thighs, and wings.  Set meat aside. 
4. Place chicken carcass in a pot with at least 5 cups of water and boil for 10 minutes to produce a stock.
5. Meanwhile, drain chicken drippings into a large pot and add butter.  Whisk until butter is melted, then add spicy Italian sausage, chopped celery, onion, carrot, garlic, thyme, a dash of hot sauce.  Cook for five minutes until soft.
6. Add chicken stock and peas to the large stock pot and stir to combine.  Boil for 1 hour.
7. Add beer (1 quart of rye ale - we  used New Glarus Smoked Rye Ale) and chicken pieces and cook for another half hour.
8. Add salt, pepper, and lemon juice to taste and serve!

The rye ale gave a very warm, woody taste to the soup.  This rye ale wasn't our favorite beer, so it was really great to use it up in this recipe.  (Last summer we bought two packs of it, but we only liked it with steak.)

Cooking with beer is fun.