Chicken Soup

There are many versions of chicken soup in the world and this one is the basic home-style, comforting, cold-curing variety. You’ll need about 3 hours to prepare this elixir but most of this time you can be off doing something else while the soup simmers away, tantalizing you with its aroma.

 

You’ll need some chicken and you have some choices how to go about that. The meat is a nice addition to the soup but the bones are the critical ingredient. Your options are: 1) use a whole chicken; you’ll end up with a whole chicken’s worth of meat, which you can use for something else such as chicken pot pie; 2) use chicken parts including wings and backs; if you buy whole chickens and cut them up to use the legs and breasts you can toss the backs, packed in plastic bags, into storage in your freezer to have on hand for making soup; 3) use the carcass from a roasted whole chicken; after you remove the meat from the bones for serving, secure the carcass in a plastic bag, refrigerate if you will use it within a day or freeze it for longer storage.

 

When you get to the dill and thyme select one or the other depending upon your taste or mood. Thyme will give a soup a Western European flavor while dill will create a more Eastern European taste. If you don’t have fresh herbs you can use dried thyme, but dried dill is pretty lackluster although you can freeze fresh dill and use it quite successfully. For the ultimate Eastern European experience add matzo balls instead of noodles. Leftover soup keeps well in the freezer, too.

 

A note of caution: at all stages you want the soup to be simmering, not boiling at a higher temperature that will increase the rate of evaporation. If you simmer with the cover on the pot you will lose less liquid and end up with more soup at the end.

 

SERVES 8

 

Ingredients: 

Chicken and bones: a whole chicken 3½ to 4 pounds or the equivalent weight of chicken parts which can include wings and backs or the carcass from a roast chicken

 

4 carrots, peeled and sliced

2 stalks celery, sliced and leaves included

1 onion, peeled and cut in half

1 clove garlic, peeled

A bay leaf

A handful of fresh parsley, if available

A handful of fresh dill or thyme if available, or 1 teaspoon dried thyme

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 cubes chicken bouillon, optional

 

⅓ pound egg noodles or matzo balls

 

. . . . . . . .

 

Instructions: 

▪ Put the chicken bones in a large pot and add 3 quarts of cold water; a 6 quart pot will do just fine. Cover and bring to a full boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to maintain a boil and continue to cook for 10 minutes. Skim off any of the impurities that float to the top.

 

▪ Add the remaining ingredients, except for the noodles or matzo balls, and lower the heat to maintain a simmer with the cover on.

 

▪ If you’ve used a whole chicken it will be thoroughly cooked in an hour. As you carefully remove it, it may fall apart so make sure you scout for all the parts. When the chicken is cool enough to handle, remove the meat and store for another use and then return the bones to the pot. Taste the soup and adjust any of the seasonings. Cover and continue to simmer the soup for another hour.

 

▪ If you have used just bones from the beginning simply simmer the soup, covered, for 2 hours. After the first half hour or so taste and adjust the seasonings. If the broth seems to lack chicken flavor it’s ok to add 2 cubes of chicken bouillon if you haven't already done so. If you’re a purist and think this is cheating you can cook the soup for another hour or two to concentrate the flavor.

 

▪ The 2 hour cooking time is flexible and more time won’t hurt as long as you make sure you are not losing liquid to evaporation. Keeping the pot covered and maintaining the lowest heat that produces a gentle simmer will help preserve the liquid. When you are done cooking the soup you need to remove the bones. An easy way to do this is to set a colander in a bowl large enough to hold the soup and carefully pour it in. Remove the colander and then pour the broth back into the pot. You may want to add back some of the vegetable pieces that look appetizing enough to serve. If you have chicken meat on hand you can also add some to your soup, and if you have used fresh herbs and have some extra that makes a nice garnish, too.

 

▪ Bring the soup back to a simmer and add either noodles or matzo balls. Cook the noodles uncovered for the recommended time on the noodle package, or cook the matzo balls covered for 30 minutes, again taking precautions to avoid evaporation. Your soup is now ready to comfort, soothe and heal you.