5-6 chicken thighs, skinned and excess fat trimmed
1 package smoked beef sausage, Andouille sausage,
or whatever, cut 3/16" thick
1/2 pound baby carrots, cut bite size
2 tablespoons oil (walnut oil is nice,
but olive oil works too)
Dash chili oil
2 sprigs rosemary
1 tablespoon sea salt
1 tablespoon coarse ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
1 cup dry white wine
1 Habanero (Scotch Bonnet) pepper,
seeded and sliced very fine
Splash vermouth
Rice, noodles, potatoes or
any other starch of your choice

First, understand that we do not make this at two in the morning. Insomnia
or a troubled mind or whatever, two in the morning is not time to attempt
to function. Make this up at a more reasonable hour, and just keep some
in the fridge for contingencies. Worst case, you grab a little for lunch until
it is gone, and then you can make some more. And, if you do the second
(and third and fourth) batches from memory, it will be just enough different in each instance to remain interesting....
Anyway. Drag out your soup pot. I use an eight quart Calphalon that I brought back on the plane with me from a trip to El Paso. Heat the pan.
Add the oil(s).  Brown up the chicken. There are Communists out there
who will tell you that browning meat somehow generates carcinogens.
Disregard these bozos. What browning meat does is to liberate all kinds
of delicious caramelization products. Same applies to veggies.
So, brown up your chicken. In batches. Then, brown the sausage rounds.
In batches. Then, brown the carrots.
Add a couple cups of water [or stock - you do have some the the fridge,
do you not?] to the pan. Scrape all the good stuff off the bottom. Return
all the chicken, sausage and carrots to the pan. Add the wine, salt, pepper
and the Habañero pepper. Use additional liquid, as required, to cover
everything nicely. Simmer for half an hour or so. Fish out the chicken.
Put it in a bowl and put the bowl in the freezer for about ten minutes. At
this point, you can pull all the meat off the bones without incurring a trip
to the burn clinic. [Brilliant!] Toss the chicken meat back into the pot and
the bones into the garbage. They have served their purpose in the great scheme of things by now.
Simmer for a few more minutes, then turn off the heat and allow to cool
for an hour or so. Transfer to the refrigerator.
Okay. Now it is two in the morning. Boil up some wide egg noodles.
Or resurrect some cooked rice. Ladle out a reasonable bowl of the soup.
Add a splash of vermouth. Nuke this in the microwave (this is the true
purpose of a microwave, after all) for a couple of minutes. Add in the
noodles (or rice).

 Eat. Then go back to bed. Sweet dreams.
 

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