Kosher Blog

Classic Chicken Soup

Anyone who gets around in the kosher world knows there are certain “third rail” topics that are best not touched. Heaven knows we’ve experienced some. Chicken soup is right up there — every family has a unique recipe they love… and defend.

I try not to be too fundamentalist when it comes to traditional recipes, but I believe the Kosher Blog is finally substantial enough (over nine months old now!) that I might offer our family’s recipe to the annals of time.

Though we weren’t religiously observant in any comprehensive way, making chicken soup was a firm Rosh Hashanah and Passover tradition in my family. This culinary mitzvah made for simple but ever-vivid memories of my childhood: returning home from school to my grandmother and the smell of simmering chicken, onions, carrots, celery and parsnips; getting an advance taste of the soup with my dad (who always eats the otherwise discarded parsnips); helping extract the cooked meat to make mom’s perfect chicken salad; skimming fat off the cooled broth; the annual experiment to find a perfect recipe for fluffy matzah balls…

Sure, you have your own recipe with garlic, or corn, or a bouquet garni. This recipe is simple, and you end up with a crisp, clean soup that actually tastes like chicken and has chicken in it. No short cuts.

OUR CHICKEN SOUP
Passed through the generations, transcribed by Karen Abbett

Ingredients
* 1 chicken, cut in quarters (as large as possible)
* 1 large onion (peeled and scored with an X on the bottom)
* 4 stalks of celery (use the ones with the leaves as well)
* 6 carrots, peeled, trim bottom and top
* 2 parsnips, peeled, trim bottom and top
* salt to taste when finished

Equipment
* Large soup pot
* Extra soup pot or large plastic container
* Wire-mesh sieve

Place quartered chicken in large soup pot with onion.
Pour in cold water until the chicken is covered (that’s the secret). Cover pot and bring to a boil on medium-high heat.

After boil, reduce heat to a simmer/low. Water must maintain a low bubble. Simmer like this for about 30 minutes, then skim off “scum” with slotted spoon if necessary.

Add celery, carrots, and parsnips, and return soup to boil at medium/high heat. After boil, reduce heat back to simmer/low. Simmer for another 20 minutes, until carrots are tender.

Remove veggies, reserving carrots. Discard any vegetables you don’t want to eat. Remove chicken pieces.

Strain soup into another soup pot through a wire sieve. Return all but two carrots to soup. Mash those two carrots through sieve into soup. Put parsnips back if you want.

Remove white-meat chicken from bone, cut up, and put into soup. Make chicken salad with the rest of the meat.

Add salt to taste. If not serving immediately, refrigerate overnight. Then, skim congealed fat off of soup and discard. Soup may be stored in plastic containers and frozen for quite a while, then reheated at your leisure on the stove or in the microwave.