There are certain foods that simply taste like a season.
Watermelon tastes like July. A pot of chili tastes like football season.
And the moment the leaves begin to turn, the nights get a little colder, and you find yourself reaching for a sweatshirt before heading outside, there are few things that taste more like fall than a warm bowl of butternut squash soup.
The best part? It is unbelievably simple.
In fact, despite its rich color, silky texture and seemingly sophisticated flavor, butternut squash soup might be one of the easiest soups you can make. And if you start the way I do—with a grocery-store rotisserie chicken—you can turn one inexpensive chicken into the foundation for several meals.
Start With the Chicken
Pick up a rotisserie chicken on the way home. Before you do anything else, break it down. Save the breast meat. That’s lunch tomorrow. Slice it for chicken Caesar salads, make chicken salad sandwiches, toss it into quesadillas, or use it for a quick chicken pot pie.
Then pull off the dark meat. That can become chicken tacos, enchiladas, buffalo chicken dip, chicken and dumplings, or simply get reheated alongside mashed potatoes and vegetables for another dinner.
Now you’re left with what most people throw away.
Don’t.
The carcass is arguably the most important ingredient in tonight’s dinner.
Put all of those bones, skin and scraps into a large stockpot. Add a couple carrots, a few stalks of celery and an onion. Don’t overthink it. You aren’t making a competition stock here. You’re extracting all of that wonderful roasted chicken flavor that is still hiding in those bones.
Cover everything with water and bring it to a boil. Then turn down the heat and let it simmer. Soon, that ordinary pot of water transforms into a beautiful golden chicken broth that tastes infinitely better than anything that came out of a box.
Strain everything out. The bones and vegetables have done their job. Discard them, and return that golden broth to the pot.
Now for the Squash
Peel a butternut squash, remove the seeds and cut the flesh into cubes. Add the squash directly to your homemade broth and bring it back to a boil.
Cook until the squash is completely tender.
And here’s where something almost magical happens.
Transfer the squash and broth to a blender and purée until completely smooth. You can also use an immersion blender right in the pot, which makes this already-simple recipe even easier.
That’s essentially it.
You now have soup.
Of course, we can make it better.
Add salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste. A little butter adds richness. A splash of heavy cream can make it downright luxurious, although you’ll be surprised how creamy the puréed squash becomes all on its own.
If you like a little sweetness, add just a touch of maple syrup or brown sugar. Not enough to make the soup sweet—just enough to bring out the natural sweetness of the squash.
And then comes the most important part.
Don’t Forget the Nutmeg
If you’re a loyal reader of this column, you know that we are disciples of Alton Brown around here.
Brown famously champions keeping whole nutmeg handy, and this is precisely the kind of dish that demonstrates why. Skip the dusty container of pre-ground nutmeg that’s been sitting in the spice cabinet since who knows when. Buy whole nutmeg. It lasts practically forever, and freshly grated nutmeg is an entirely different ingredient.
Take out your Microplane and grate just a little over each bowl immediately before serving.
You don’t need much.
That warm, aromatic spice hits the steam rising from the soup, and suddenly the whole thing tastes unmistakably like October.
Keep the Rest Simple
This isn’t a meal that needs much accompaniment. The soup is the star.
Serve it with a thick slice of crusty bread, preferably toasted with butter. A grilled cheese sandwich makes it a full-fledged comfort-food dinner. For something a little more interesting, make the grilled cheese with sharp cheddar, Gruyère or smoked Gouda.
You could also top each bowl with roasted pumpkin seeds for crunch, a small swirl of cream, crispy bacon, croutons or a few fried sage leaves.
But don’t bury it.
The beauty of butternut squash soup is its simplicity.
And since it is October, there may be no better beverage to put beside it than a good fall beer.
An Oktoberfest or Märzen brings those wonderful malty, toasted flavors that pair beautifully with the sweetness of the squash. Or go all-in on the season and grab a pumpkin ale. The cinnamon, clove, nutmeg and other baking spices found in many pumpkin beers naturally complement the soup.
Your choice.
Pour the beer into a glass, grab a piece of warm bread, and sit down with a bowl of soup that started with a rotisserie chicken and a squash.
That’s really what this column is about.
Good cooking doesn’t always mean expensive ingredients, complicated recipes or spending all day in the kitchen.
Sometimes it’s recognizing that the bones you’re about to throw away can become tomorrow’s stock, that a humble squash can become something luxurious with little more than a blender, and that one freshly grated spice can make an entire dish taste like fall.
One chicken. A few vegetables. One butternut squash. Several meals—and one very good bowl of soup.
That’s October cooking.