It’s recipe time here at the League! I am pleased to say that I do, indeed, have my own recipe for chili, but since that’s already been done, I thought perhaps I would share my recipe for chicken soup. Cold and flu season is coming, after all, and since I have nothing to offer in my professional capacity, I may as well offer some tips for the TLC that I recommend for patients who must simply recover in their own time.
Before I go any further I’m going to admit right from the get-go that my recipe for soup is based largely on the Chicken Stock 1 recipe from the “Dairy Hollow House Soup and Bread Cookbook” by Crescent Dragonwagon. I can’t tell for sure, but given the prices for the few copies you can get via Amazon I would guess it’s out of print? (I will now guard my copy jealously.) I start with her recipe, toss a lot of additional ingredients in, and modify it to make it a soup instead of just a stock. It’s an easy recipe, and one that is happy for a relatively lazy cook like me.
Aside the First: This recipe is, no doubt, very different from the one Rose uses for her chicken soup with matzoh balls. If you’re lucky enough to be invited to her home for a seder, you will understand why I will gladly modify it in accordance with anything she might recommend. It is, no joke, the dish I look forward to most out of the whole meal. (Her dad’s gefilte fish is also awesome.)
Anyhow, here goes…
Ingredients: One 4-lb chicken (washed, giblets removed but neck optional), two onions (peeled and quartered), garlic (crushed but not peeled, as many cloves as you like — I like six), eight whole cloves, an inch of ginger root (cut into segments but don’t bother peeling), four stalks of celery, two parsnips, two leeks, four carrots, two bay leaves, celery seed, eight or nine black peppercorns, olive oil, fennel (more on that later), salt, vinegar (I prefer apple cider vinegar) and generous amounts of fresh parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme [insert obligatory Simon & Garfunkel joke here; I firmly believe the soup tastes better if you listen to “Graceland” while you make it], dill and savory. (Crescent includes basil, which I omit, and excludes dill, which I think is crazy.)
Prep/cook time: About three and a half hours, but the work itself is pretty damn easy.
Step 1) Cover bottom of large stock pot with olive oil. (Crescent uses Pam, which I guess you could use… but why? Any other cooking oil seems a perfectly reasonable substitution.) Add chicken (and neck, if you’re using it.) Stud each quarter of onion with a whole clove (not sure why, quite honestly, but it’s part of the original recipe to do it, and so I always have, and the soup is always good, so…) and arrange around chicken. Toss in crushed but whole and un-peeled garlic cloves, ginger root, a generous sprinkling of celery seed, bay leaves, the whole peppercorns and a good palmful of fennel seeds (crushed with mortar and pestle; more on the fennel later). Add two tablespoons of vinegar, which adds a bit of piquancy and also (I believe) helps draw some of the substance of the bones out with its acidity. (Alton Brown, if you’re reading, please feel free to comment.) Give a generous shake of kosher salt, but not too much. (Better to add salt to taste later after it’s cooked down than add too much now.)
Step 2) Cut one of the leeks (with greens attached) in half and wash well, then cut into large segments. Cut two stalks of celery (leaves attached) into large segments, and do the same with two carrots and one parsnip. Add to the pot. Add enough filtered water to cover everything well.
Aside the Second: Tragically, the grocery store did not have a bulb of fresh fennel on offer when I went shopping for ingredients. I would usually add a bulb of fresh fennel, chopped into large segments, to the list of fresh vegetables above. In that event, I would not include the fennel seeds.
Step 3) Bring to gentle boil, then reduce heat for a steady simmer. Cook for one hour. Entertain small child running around the kitchen during this time (optional).
Step 4) Remove from heat, and extract chicken from pot. This has to be done gingerly, as it should be fell-cooked enough to come apart. Remove as much meat as possible from bones (I find two forks work well for this step), and return bones to pot, which should be brought back to gentle simmer. Remove and discard as much skin from the cooked chicken as possible. Using forks, shred meat into small pieces. Cover and reserve for later, and protect from the attentions of thieving household felines and spouses.
Step 5) After another hour, add generous amount (~ 1 tablespoon or so, roughly chopped) of fresh sage, dill, rosemary, thyme, savory and parsley. You can be pretty lazy with the chopping here, since everything’s going to get removed from the final product, and if the occasional stem gets tossed in you’ll just fish it out later. Continue simmering for another hour or so. Prepare chilled beverage (optional).
Step 6) While the vegetables, bones and herbs are simmering for the final hour, take the remaining carrots, celery, leek and parsnip, peeling the root vegetables, trimming off the leek greens, and slicing everything thinly.
Step 7) After the pot has finished simmering, remove from the heat. With whatever implement of culinary artistry you think would work, remove every last bit of solid material from the pot that you can. The bones should appear bleached and the vegetables are flavorless mush. As Mrs. Who would say, the virtue is gone from them, and they should be discarded. Now is the time to taste the broth and add as much salt as you feel is necessary.
Step 8) Bring back to simmer over medium heat, and add the thinly-sliced celery, leek, carrot and parsnip. Cook for another 15-20 minutes, long enough for the vegetables to be thoroughly cooked but no longer.
Step 9) Add the reserved chicken meat to pot, and cook for an additional 5-10 minutes. Remove from heat, and allow to cool. Serve, or chill for later serving.
Notes, modifications and addenda: If you’re going to cool the soup to serve later, it offers a handy method of removing the flavorless fat from the top. Once it has cooled, it will collect as an easily-skimmed layer on the surface. If you plan to serve immediately after cooking, skim the fat during earlier stages.
If you have other root vegetables (eg. turnips) to use up, you can add them at both steps 2 and 8. But I think carrot, celery and parsnip make the best combination.
I like to add rice to the soup, which is cooked separately and can be added at the very end, along with the already-cooked chicken.
If you want to add a little fillip to the flavor, dry vermouth is nice. A couple of tablespoons should suffice.
Anyhow, there you have it. For those of you who try it, let me know what you think! It’s a favorite of the Better Half’s and mine, and it’s something we both make for each other when ailment calls for chicken soup.
[Apologies for wonky formatting. Something got screwy in the transition from Blinded Trials to here, and I’m not nearly confident enough in my blogging mojo to try to fix it.]
Zazzy just randomly demanded chicken soup. As in, at 7PM I said to her, “What should we do for dinner?” To which she replied, “How about homemade chicken soup?” To which I replied, “Go fish yourself.”*
Thanks to you, I have one less excuse to fulfill this wish. My hunch is this will be made during one of the coming weekends.
* Zazzy often insists that my stories are completely made up. I didn’t actually tell her to go fish herself or anything there about. But what I did say carried the same message, albeit delivered differently, and that wouldn’t translate well to a story. So I take poetic license. She calls it lying. I just think it is part of being a storyteller. But, for the record, I did not actually tell my wife to go fish herself because of chicken soup.Report
If you’re gonna take that kind of license, might as well have had her actually go do it, then ask again.Report
Just don’t ever run for president, lest you be fact-checked.Report
” But, for the record, I did not actually tell my wife to go fish herself because of chicken soup.”
I like this line, because it suggests you told her to go fish herself because of the side salad.Report
This sounds delicious, and much less fussy than when I make chicken soup. So I hunk its a good bet come the rainy season I will give this recipe a shot.Report
Just to clarify, in step 5 that’s a tablespoon if each of those spices, not a single tablespoon of them all together?Report
James, I think he’s using fresh herbs…so a tablespoon of each would work. If you needed to substitute dried in a pinch, you are right that you would probably want quite a bit less. I bet this would still taste delish with just two or three kinds of fresh herbs, whatever you can get you hands on.
Russell, you’d better believe we’ll be making this chez Kelly in the near future! My mouth is watering already…Report
Ah, yes. It’s a tablespoon each of the fresh herbs. Sorry for the lack of clarity. And you can certainly use dried, a large pinch of whatever you’re using. If you use dried herbs, add them at the very beginning.
And Niki, I hope you like this recipe if you really do end up making it.Report
And I confused herbs and spices. Thanks, both, for not mocking me.Report
Oh yea… what is “savory”? Am I totally an idiot for not knowing?Report
Think of it like this:
Vanilla ice cream & hot fudge = sweet
Roasted lamb w/ Rosemary & garlic = savoryReport
I know what the savory flavor profile is, Todd. I’m not a mid-westerner.Report
What? You’ve been listening to too much Prairie Home Companion. It’s not all gelatin and green beans out here.
Savory.Report
In this case, I’m referring to savory the herb. It adds a similar flavor to dishes as thyme and rosemary, and goes well with them. I can usually find it at the grocery store, but it can be omitted without worry if you can’t find it.Report
Thanks! I’m hitting the speciality grocer today so hopefully they’ll have it there.Report
It would surprise me if they didn’t.Report
I’m still loving the food posts! This soup looks great delicious and now I want soup even though it’s going to be 80 today.
The major thing I do differently here, that I learned from Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook , is that I roast my chicken before making stock from it. It adds considerable time to the whole thing but it does add a real something to the flavor. If you’ve got all day for chicken soup sometime, you might want to give it a try, or maybe that’s one of those over the top things that we shouldn’t do at home, YMMV.Report
Hmmmm. That does sound like it would add flavor. Do you put the whole roast chicken in the pot, or just the bones? How long do you cook the chicken in the pot? I’d be afraid of overcooking it.Report
This might sound odd, but I’ve actually frozen the ‘remains’ of roasted chicken to make my stocks from.
Then again, I have a stockpot which can accommodate two birds.
If I’m in a hurry, I’ll cheat and pick up a rotisserie chicken for a ‘quick’ soup. I also loathe fennel, but I do add barley to mine in lieu of rice.Report
Doesn’t everybody freeze the turkey carcass from XGiving and make a soup in a few weeks? Much as I love ’em, I can’t wait ’til the leftovers are gone so we can get started on the soup!Report
Well, there is at least one thing in this world we can agree on, TomReport
Apparently not; my MIL looked at me like I was crazy when I was putting the carcass in plastic and tossing it in my freezer. I’m like, “Don’t you save yours for soup?”
Apparently making your own stock is too time consuming or something. I don’t see it, but meh – she’s a little weird like that.Report
I put the whole chicken in, I don’t get too concerned about overcooking the meat as I run a very low simmer and I’ve never noticed it getting tough.
You can remove the whole thing after about an hour and it should easily fall apart already, then you could reserve the meat and return the bones if you were so inclined. You also could crank your oven heat and crisp the outside more and not wait for the thighs to fully cook, since a few hours in the simmer will finish the job easily.
I’ll peruse Les Halles and a couple of other sources for recommendations this evening.
And, Darwy, I used to try and save carcasses but I don’t have the freezer space any more now that it’s full of stuff for the toddler. As soon as I spring for a chest freezer I will be back on saving all my roast bones and carcasses for stock.
There are some pretty decent stocks on the market now, I go through several cartons a month. I make it from scratch only for a special meal a few times a year, a chicken soup like the doc’s would be one such case.Report
I’m sooo thankful that my son is 4 now and eats like a trucker. I save beef, pork and chicken/turkey bones in bags whenever possible and then toss ’em in the pot.
I don’t do fish – I hate fish – so I never have a fish stock around. I manage to plug my nose long enough to make my husband some chowdah once in a while.Report
When we have lobster (which is quite often during the summer, as we can walk two minutes from our house and get them right off the dock), I always make at least one batch of stock for chowder during the winter.Report
It’s hard to get decent lobster in Denmark. I mean, I won’t eat the vile things – but the lobsters they sell out here wouldn’t be legal to catch in the US. They look like large crayfish (but they’re from off the coast of Canada).
I also refuse to spend 40$ per pound for itsy bitsy lobsters.Report
Egad! I would, too.
Living where we do has ruined me for ever ordering lobster anywhere else.Report
Plinko’s roasting technique works just as well for beef bones: oxidation chemistry. And just pull apart the ol’ chicken carcass. A low simmer for a few hours should do fine.Report
Sounds delicious!
For the record, since it was brought up, the broth for my matzoh ball soup is pretty similar, but loosey-goosey, and unmeasured. I doubt I’ve made the same one twice. But I’d use any of those ingredients, except cloves seem….clovey. My onions are not peeled, to give soup more color. I highly support vinegar or lemon juice addition. If it’s for a Jewish occasion, I restrict the herbs to bay leaves, parsley, and dill and wouldn’t use a spice other than pepper. Always only throw in whole herbs. If it’s for around the house illness, we’ll use whatever we have, and may throw in some tomatoes and/or parmesan rind and grate parmesan over the finished product. I don’t use a whole chicken 0 just backs, necks, and wings, which are cheaper and more gelatinous which has nice mouthfeel. Poach breasts in it later if I want meat. Poach eggs sometimes in finished product also.Report
I tend to give the herbs a rough chop or two, but they’re essentially whole when they go it. (It also makes it easier to fish them back out.)Report
With Jewish soup, I pour the whole thing through fine mesh strainer anyway. With other, I make bouquet garni.Report
I usually do several passes over the top with a strainer, which suffices for my purposes. If I were to go the extra mile, I’d pour the whole thing through, but I’m too lazy, plus the little bits of retained herbs and small flecks of meat give the broth a little more substance, IMHO.Report
okay now this is WAY too mouthwatering!!!
I like the roasting the chicken first idea (or at least using the leftover carcass from 1-2 roast chickens to make the broth, or maybe even roasting the back and necks and wings that Rose suggested before putting them in the soup pot). I’d be inclined to save the meat out, to put in later at the end, and only put the bones and skin and carcass in to the pot with all the delicious stuff you suggested in the OP, Russell.Report
Dr. Saunders,
Is publication of this recipe an implied physician’s assurance that the resulting product will cure my common cold and/or be good for my soul?Report
Well, it probably won’t hurt.Report
I’d expect you to disapprove of the promiscuous use of an antibiotic as broad-spectrum as chicken soup.Report
If I derived nearly as much pleasure from prescribing Zithromax as I do from cooking soup, I’d probably do it much more prodigally.Report
“OK, I’ll make the Z rounded, and tilt the X sideways… I bet he winds up with Claritin! Bwahahahahaha!”Report
Heh. Sadly, our electronic prescribing system stymies whatever fun I might have along those lines.Report
Needs more carrot.Report
I was gonna take issue with this, but now I realize half the roots were used in the stock, those don’t look like really big ones so I’d happily use two carrots and one parsnip for the stock, but have four and two more for the soup.
But, I like a lotta veggies in my soup.Report
My stock is a whole chicken (or two) by itself. (possibly sans breast).
Boiled until it’s stock, not broth.Report
and about ten or so carrots.Report
The carrots I used for the stock were relatively big, but maybe that doesn’t come through in the pictures. However, you could toss in a couple more (both for the stock and at the end) to suit your taste.Report