Better Than Bubbes Matzo Ball Soup Recipes

MATZOH BALL SOUP

Steps:

• Trim off neck flap all the way up to the top of the wishbone. Trim fat and skin from around the back cavity of the chicken. Reserve both for schmaltz and grebenes. Cut chicken into quarters. Place meat in large pot with onions, and cover with about 4 quarts water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat , and simmer 2 hours.
• Add carrots and celery to the soup; simmer an additional hour. Season to taste with salt.
• Remove chicken pieces, and set aside. You may reserve them for another use, or shred the meat for the soup. Keep the chicken covered, and at room temperature before shredding.
• Dice reserved skin and fat into 1 inch pieces. Cook in a heavy bottomed skillet over medium heat, turning occasionally. Make sure the pan never gets so hot as to cause the rendered fat to smoke. When the grebenes are crisp and brown, remove them to a cutting board and drain schmaltz into a small nonplastic bowl to cool slightly. When cool enough to handle, mince the grebenes finely.
• To make the matzoh balls, blend fat or oil and eggs together. Mix matzoh meal and salt together. Combine the two mixtures, and mix well. Add 4 1/2 tablespoons soup stock or water; mix until uniform. Stir in minced grebenes. Cover bowl, and place in refrigerator for 20 minutes.
• Bring soup to a boil. Reduce flame, and drop balls approximately 1 inch in diameter into the slightly boiling water. Add dill. Cover pot, and cook 30 to 40 minutes. DO NOT REMOVE THE COVER FROM THE POT WHLE COOKING!

MATZO BALL SOUP - CHICKEN SOUP WITH 3 MATZO BALL RECIPES

Steps:

• This recipe focuses on the chicken soup that is served together with the matzo balls. You'll want to make the matzo balls separately, then serve this soup together with the matzo balls. I recommend one of these three recipes for the matzo balls - floaters, sinkers, or gluten free. I've been super specific with the instructions here, but once you've made this soup a time or two, you'll see that this whole process is very flexible. Making chicken soup "your own" is part of the fun, so use whatever process and ingredients work best for you!
• I typically add celery and onion as the main vegetables when cooking my soup stock, though you can add carrots too. I prefer adding carrots at the end of cooking, to avoid the stock becoming overly sweet - we prefer a more savory broth. I highly recommend putting in fresh vegetables after the chicken stock is cooked; they'll be much more flavorful that way (otherwise they tend to be mushy and boring). For the first pound of celery, cut it into large 1-inch chunks (you can include any celery leaves as well).
• The rest of the celery and the carrots (which will end up in the finished soup that is served) should be sliced no thicker than 1/2 inch, with larger stalks and carrots halved lengthwise before cutting into chunks. The uniform size will ensure the pieces cook quickly and evenly. Reserve. (By the way, these veggies are optional - some people like their chicken soup without any vegetables.)
• If using saffron, crush the saffron threads in a mortar and pestle until pulverized to powder. Note: saffron adds a depth of flavor and a deep golden color to the broth, but true saffron (the only kind with flavor) is very pricey. It's got a very nice, but distinctive, essence, so don't add it unless you know you enjoy it. The soup will be delicious with or without it.
• Remove the root end of the onion (it can sometimes be a bit dirty), then slice the whole onion into two halves. Leave the skin on, but make sure it is rinsed clean.
• If using a whole chicken, make sure any gizzards that might be hidden inside are removed (they'll make the stock murky and cloudy). Place the chicken into a 10 quart or larger stock pot. Cover with 5 quarts (20 cups) of water.
• Bring water to a boil over medium high heat. Let the chicken simmer for 10-15 minutes, skimming the foam and particles that rise to the surface of the water periodically, until most of the foam is gone.
• Replenish the liquid that was removed during scumming with hot water (it's usually around 1-2 cups).
• Do a final skimming to remove any leftover foam. Add the first pound of celery (the larger pieces), onion, parsley (unchopped), 2/3 of the dill (unchopped), peppercorns, cloves, and bay leaves to the pot. Add 1 tbsp kosher salt to the water (if you're salt sensitive or using a kosher salted bird, you may wish to salt less). Bring back to a simmer. From this point on, it's important not to let the soup come to a rolling boil. A slow and even simmer is best - if the soup boils quickly, the broth may become cloudy.
• If you are adding the saffron, add it to the pot now. Spoon a little of the hot water from the pot into the mortar, stir, then pour it out to make sure you get every bit of saffron into the pot.
• Put the lid on the pot and vent it. Reduce heat to medium low so the soup is slowly simmering. Let the soup cook for roughly 90 minutes.
• Test for doneness by pulling the leg from the chicken. It should easily separate, showing that the chicken has become quite tender. If not using a whole chicken, stick a fork into one of the dark meat pieces to see if it flakes tenderly. When chicken is ready, turn off the heat. Use a pair of tongs to carefully pull the chicken from the broth (it may fall apart into pieces as you pull it out - that's a good sign!). Put it on a plate or in a bowl.
• Allow the chicken and the broth to cool down for 20-30 minutes, until the pot handles are cool enough to touch and lift. Carefully strain the broth into another pot or large bowl (6 quart) through a mesh strainer. Discard the celery and onion (which will be very mushy and flavorless at this point), spices, herbs, and onion halves. If you used a bowl here, clean the pot and add the strained stock back to the pot again - it will need to cook a little longer.
• Note: When the soup is completely cool, you can skim the fat from the top of the broth if you want to-- it will come off in a gel-like layer (this is the "schmaltz"). I actually don't like to skim the fat; those droplets on the surface make the broth silky and give it flavor.
• Pull the meat from the chicken bones into bite-sized pieces.
• Now is the time to add the reserved fresh sliced veggies to the pot (1 pound celery, 1 pound carrots). Bring the broth to a simmer - not a boil - and let the vegetables cook for 20-30 minutes until tender. (If you're not adding additional veggies, just skip ahead to the next step).
• Remove stems from the remaining fresh dill and chop it up.
• Stir the cooked chicken pieces and the dill into the soup with the vegetables, and simmer for a couple of minutes more. Taste the chicken broth and season with additional salt, if desired.
• I generally cook my matzo balls in homemade chicken stock in a separate pot. Technically you can cook matzo balls (or kreplach or noodles or whatever) directly in the soup broth, but it will soak up a lot of the yummy stock, leaving you with very little broth for serving. If you prefer to cook your starch of choice directly in the soup, do so before you add the reserved vegetables and chicken pieces - just know you'll be left with very little broth for serving.
• Serve individual portions of soup ladled over the matzo balls. I usually add about 1.5 cups of soup per bowl, and 2 matzo balls per serving (depending on the size of the matzo balls).

BUBBIE'S HEARTY MATZO BALL SOUP

Steps:

• Place chicken into a large pot and cover with water; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer until chicken meat is very tender and falling off the bones, about 1 1/2 hours. Remove chicken from pot and pick chicken meat from bones when cool enough to handle, discarding skin and bones. Shred chicken meat.
• Bring chicken broth to a boil in a large soup pot; stir shredded chicken meat, carrots, celery, turnip, parsnips, leek, onion, and dill into broth. Turn heat to low and simmer until vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes.
• Stir matzo ball mix, eggs, vegetable oil, and 1/2 cup water together in a bowl. Form mixture into 1-inch balls using wet hands to prevent sticking. Return broth to a boil and gently drop matzo balls into the boiling soup. Reduce heat again and simmer soup until matzo balls have increased in size and are cooked through, about 20 more minutes.

BETTER THAN BUBBE'S MATZO BALL SOUP

Steps:

• In pot over high heat, combine chicken with 5 quarts water or enough to cover. Bring to a boil, skimming foam as needed; reduce heat to medium-low. Meanwhile, cut half the carrots and parsnips into 2" pieces. Halve the remaining carrots and parsnips lengthwise. Cut into 1/2" pieces; set aside. To soup add celery, onion, garlic, and reserved large carrot and parsnip pieces; simmer 1 hour. Add next 4 ingredients; simmer about 30 minutes. Strain, reserving broth and chicken.
• Discard skin from chicken. Pull meat from bones; cut or tear into bite-sized pieces. Return broth to same pot over medium heat; add remaining carrots and parsnips. Simmer until vegetables are almost tender, about 10 minutes. Add chicken; heat well, about 5 minutes. Stir in last 4 soup ingredients. Cover; set aside.
• Meanwhile, in a skillet over low heat cook reserved chicken fat, stirring occasionally, until melted and solids begin to brown, 30 minutes. Strain fat, discarding solids. Measure melted fat; add enough vegetable oil to equal 1/3 cup, if necessary.
• In small pot over medium heat, combine schmaltz, eggs, salt, pepper, and seltzer . Stir in matzo meal. Cover; refrigerate at least 30 minutes.
• Fill skillet halfway with water or chicken broth. Place over high heat; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium. With lightly moistened hands, shape tablespoonfuls of matzo mixture into balls. Gently add to simmering water or broth.
• Cover; simmer until all matzo balls are cooked through, about 20 minutes. using a slotted spoon transfer matzo balls to soup. Let stand 15 minutes to allow matzo balls absorb flavors of soup. Reheat, if necessary, and serve.

MATZO BALL SOUP

Steps:

• For the stock the best results come from the chicken bones of an already cooked chicken - so enjoy a chicken dinner and save the bones and the close meat. Cook this until the vegetables are nearly disintegrated. Remember do not add your salt till the boil point has been reached or your stock will be cloudy. Approximately 3 hours.
• Cool and strain off all the meat, vegetables and bones. Discard.
• Cool and strain off any fats.
• For the Matzo Balls: Beat the eggs. Add seltzer,oil, salt and pepper. Mix well.
• Add Matzo meal and stir thoroughly. Refrigerate for 1/2 to 1 hour.
• Fill a 5 quart pot 3/4 full of water and bring to a rolling boil add 3/4 cup of kosher salt to the water and bring back to rolling boil.
• Moisten the palms of your hands with cold water form your matzo balls - I use a tsp to measure the amount - approximately 1/2" in diameter. Drop matzo balls into boiling water.
• Cook for at least 30 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon to a large bowl.
• Soup:.
• In a 6 quart pot add 1 tsp of olive oil when heated add your onion, carrots, celery and garlic. Over low heat bring to fork tender.
• Add the remainder of the ingredients. Add cooked matzo balls and allow to simmer for at least 30 minutes.