Blues and Flu Chaser Soup

From The New England Soup Factory Cookbook. I was very unsure about this recipe, it definitely calls for some unusual (for chicken soup) ingredients but after tasting the finished product I love it! It's zesty and soothing and will definitely be nice to have when we're feeling under the weather.

Ingredients:
20 garlic cloves, peeled
1 cup olive oil
1 whole chicken, about 4-5 lbs
3 celery ribs, diced
1 onion, diced
6 carrots, peeled and sliced thickly
2 bay leaves
1 t ground cinnamon
1/2 t cayenne pepper
2 t dried mint
2-3 slices fresh ginger (optional - I didn't use them)
3/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 T lemon zest
12 cups chicken stock
2 T fresh basil, chopped (for serving)
3 cups rice, cooked (for serving)

Directions*:

• Roast garlic by preheating oven to 325 degrees and placing cloves in an oven safe casserole, covering with olive oil and then covering with foil and roasting for around 40 minutes or until golden. Strain oil and reserve. Mash cloves and set aside.
• Pour garlic oil into a large stock pot and add onions, celery and carrots. Saute until onion are soft and clear.
• Add whole chicken, stock, lemon juice,  zest, bay leaves, cinnamon, cayenne, dried mint, ginger (if using) and garlic cloves.
• Cover and simmer soup for 2.5-3 hours or until chicken is soft (it falls apart).
• Remove from heat and place the chicken to a plate to cool. When the chicken is cool enough to handle, remove the skin and bones and add the meat back to the soup. (I placed my bones and skin into another pot to make a batch of stock). Salt and pepper to taste.
• Skim off the fat and reserve for cooking or feed to your chickens ;).
• When serving the soup, add the chopped basil and rice (don't freeze the soup with the basil and rice in it).

*The original recipe said you could thin your soup with stock or water if it seemed too thick. I tried that this morning after letting it sit overnight and I wouldn't recommend it unless you want to reverse engineer the subtle flavors. Watering it down destroyed them. I re-added cinnamon, mint and cayenne and, because I can't leave well enough alone, I also added 1 t ground ginger and 1 t tumeric. Both seemed to enhance the flavor and I'll add them initially next time.