Go To Chicken Soup Recipes

BASIC CHICKEN SOUP

Steps:

• Bring chicken, water, and 1 tablespoon salt to a boil in a large stockpot. Skim foam. Add onions, celery, and garlic. Reduce heat. Simmer, partially covered, for 30 minutes.
• Remove breast, and set aside. Add carrots. Simmer, partially covered, for 40 minutes.
• Remove remaining chicken; discard back and wings. Let cool slightly. Remove meat from bones, and cut into bite-size pieces.
• Stir in desired amount of chicken; reserve the rest for another use. Skim fat. Season with salt.

HOMEMADE CHICKEN SOUP

Steps:

• Put the chicken, carrots, celery and onion in a large soup pot and cover with cold water. Heat and simmer, uncovered, until the chicken meat falls off of the bones (skim off foam every so often).
• Take everything out of the pot. Strain the broth. Pick the meat off of the bones and chop the carrots, celery and onion. Season the broth with salt, pepper and chicken bouillon to taste, if desired. Return the chicken, carrots, celery and onion to the pot, stir together, and serve.

OLD FASHIONED CHICKEN SOUP

Steps:

• Remove skin from chicken legs. Add to large soup pot that has a tight fitting lid. Pour cold water over and add the ground turmeric.
• Prepare soup vegetables. Chop onion, slice celery and carrots, mince garlic, shred cabbage, and dice potatoes. Add to soup pot. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes.
• Remove chicken from pot and set aside to cool. Once cool, remove meat from bones. Discard bones, cut meat into bite-size pieces, and add back to soup pot.
• Stir in egg noodles or dry pasta noodle of your choice.
• Season broth with salt, pepper, dried oregano, basil, and sugar. Simmer an additional 15 minutes.
• To serve, garnish with fresh minced parsley.

GO-TO CHICKEN SOUP

Steps:

• Make the broth: Add the broth and 4 cups water to a large soup pot and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Sprinkle the chicken with salt. Submerge the chicken pieces into the broth. When the broth starts to boil, reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook until the breast and tenderloin start to separate, about 10 minutes, and then remove with tongs or a large strainer. Continue simmering the leg pieces until the meat pulls away from the bone, about 10 more minutes. Remove the legs from the pot. Allow to cool just enough to handle the meat.
• Prep the chicken: Shred the chicken pieces by hand and reserve the meat. (You can reserve the chicken bones to start or reinforce another stock.) Strain the broth if desired.
• Finish the soup: Add the carrots and celery stalks and cook until tender, about 8 minutes. Stir in the shredded chicken. When just heated through, after about 3 minutes, remove from the heat. Season with salt, stir in the parsley and celery leaves and serve.
• Chicken Noodle Soup
• Make the broth and prep the chicken for Go-To Chicken Soup, but this time cut 3 carrots, 3 celery stalks and the chicken into small dice. Add to the broth and cook over medium heat until tender, about 10 minutes. Add 6 ounces medium-wide egg noodles and cool until al dente, about 6 minutes. Before serving, stir in 2 tablespoons each chopped fresh parsley and fresh dill.
• Chicken Tortellini Soup
• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut the top off a head of garlic and rub with olive oil and salt. Wrap in foil and bake until very soft, 45 to 55 minutes. Meanwhile, make the broth and prep the chicken for the Go-To Chicken Soup. Squeeze out the garlic and mash into a paste before whisking into the broth along with 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary. Add the chicken, carrots and celery and cook over medium heat until tender, 8 minutes. Add 8 ounces of your favorite tortellini and cook until tender, another 8 minutes. Serve with pecorino Romano over top.
• Mexican Chicken and Rice Soup
• Make the broth and prep the chicken for the Go-To Chicken Soup. Add the chicken, carrots, celery and 3/4 cup long grain rice and cook over medium heat until tender, about 15 minutes. Add 1 cup diced tomato and cook another 5 minutes. Before serving stir in 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro and the juice of 2 limes. Garnish with additional cilantro.
• Asian Chicken Soup
• Make the broth and prep the chicken for the Go-To Chicken Soup, with the addition of a 3-inch piece of sliced fresh ginger in the broth. Discard the ginger. Add the chicken, carrots and celery and cook over medium heat until tender, about 10 minutes. Saute 2 cups quartered shiitake caps in 1 teaspoon peanut oil until soft, about 2 minutes. Transfer to the broth with 1 sliced small bok choy, 1 tablespoon soy sauce and 2 teaspoons Asian chili garlic sauce. Season with salt and pepper and serve.
• Chicken and Dumpling Soup
• For the dumplings, whisk together 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 tablespoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon each onion powder and salt and 3 tablespoons chopped fresh chives. Cut in 4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter until pea-size bits form. Stir in 1 cup milk. Set aside and make the broth and prep the chicken for Go-To Chicken Soup. Add the carrots and celery and simmer until tender, 8 minutes. Make a paste of 3 tablespoons each softened butter and flour. Divide into 4 balls. Whisk each ball into the soup for a minute each. Add the chicken and 1 1/2 cups frozen peas. Return to a simmer, and spoon large tablespoons of dumpling dough into the soup, without overlapping. Cover and steam over medium heat until cooked through, 8 minutes.
• Matzo Ball Soup
• Whisk together 4 eggs, 1/3 cup room temperature chicken fat, 1/4 cup each seltzer and finely chopped fresh parsley and 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt in a medium bowl. Stir in 1 1/4 cups matzo meal and refrigerate 2 hours. Form into 16 balls. Gently slip the balls in a large pot of boiling salted water, reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer until cooked through, about 40 minutes. Add the matzo balls to Go-To Chicken Soup.

CLASSIC HOMEMADE CHICKEN SOUP

Steps:

• Cut up your chicken into pieces (thighs, legs, breasts, etc) and place in a large stock pot.
• Fill with cold water to cover and put on high heat as you assemble the rest of the ingredients.
• Cut up all of your veggies. You can do this any way you like, but I like to leave these in large pieces so they don't get too mushy during the long cooking time.
• You can tie your dill and parsley together if you like.
• Put all the veggies and herbs into the pot.
• Add extra water if needed.
• Bring to a boil, and then let simmer.
• Simmer for 2-4 hours*.
• *The cook time is largely up to you. I like to cook mine for many hours to get all of the flavors out of the chicken, but really, once the chicken is cooked through, you can take it off the fire.
• If you prefer to have smaller pieces of carrots, potatoes, or celery in your soup, dice as much as you want and put it into the pot 30-40 minutes before it's done.
• ***TIP: There will be A LOT of fat on the top of this soup from the chicken skin. Traditionally, you would cook this the day before, refrigerate over night, and then remove the hardened fat layer. Easy as pie. But, if you want it the same day, you will have to skim the fat as the cooking progresses. So watch the soup over the 2-4 hours of cooking and skim as you go.
• Add salt and pepper to taste. (you will need a lot of salt. Don't fret. Start off with a teaspoon. Taste. Add another pinch. Taste. Add. And so on until you reach desired flavor.
• Take all the chicken out of the pot and remove the meat from the bones and skin. Discard the bones and skin. You can replace the meat into the pot or leave it on the side for people to put into their individual bowls.
• Make egg noodles, rice, or dumplings to accompany.
• Eat and enjoy.

CHICKEN SOUP FROM SCRATCH

Steps:

• Place the chicken, celery, carrots, onions, parsnip (if using), parsley, peppercorns, bay leaves and salt in a large soup pot and cover with cold water by 1 inch.
• Bring to a boil over high heat, then immediately reduce the heat to very low. Adjust the heat until the soup is "smiling": barely moving on the surface, with an occasional bubble breaking through. Cook uncovered, until the chicken is very tender and falling off the bone, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
• When cool enough to handle, use tongs to transfer chicken from the pot to a container. Taste the broth and continue to simmer it until it is concentrated and tasty. Strain broth through a fine sieve (or a colander lined with cheesecloth) into a separate container. Discard all the solids from the strainer (or reserve the vegetables, chill and serve with vinaigrette, if you wish).
• Refrigerate chicken pieces and broth separately for at least 8 hours (or up to 3 days), until a thick layer of yellow fat has risen to the top of the broth.
• When ready to finish the soup, use your fingers to separate chicken breast meat from bones and skin. Discard bones and skin. Use two forks to pull the breast meat apart into soft chunks, or use a knife and cut into bite-size pieces. (Reserve dark meat for another use.)
• Skim chicken fat from top of broth and set aside. Place 3 tablespoons of the fat in a soup pot with a lid. Add leeks, stir to coat, and heat over medium heat until leeks begin to fry. Then reduce the heat to a gentle sizzle and cook, stirring often, until slightly softened, about 3 minutes.
• Add carrots, sprinkle with salt, stir, and cover the pot. Cook until vegetables are just tender, about 5 minutes more. (Keep in mind that vegetables will continue to cook in the soup.) Do not brown.
• Pour broth into pot with vegetables and heat to a simmer. Add noodles and simmer until heated through, soft and plumped with chicken broth. Add the breast meat, then taste broth and add salt and pepper to taste. For best flavor, soup should have some golden droplets of fat on top; if needed, add more chicken fat one teaspoon at a time.
• Serve immediately, in a tureen or from the pot, sprinkling each serving with herbs.

CHICKEN SOUP WITH LOADS OF VEGETABLES

Steps:

• 1. Put the water and the chicken in a large pot and bring the water to a boil. Skim off the froth.
• 2. Add the marrow bones, onions, parsnips, celery, 3/4 of the rutabaga, turnip, kohlrabi, 4 of the carrots, the parsley, 4 tablespoons of the dill, and the salt and pepper. Cover and simmer of 2 1/2 hours, adjusting the seasoning to taste.
• 3. Strain, remove the chicken, discard the vegetables and refrigerate the liquid to solidify. Remove the skin and bones from the chicken and cut the meat into bite-size chunks. Refrigerate. Remove the fat from the soup.
• 4. Just before serving, reheat the soup. Bring to a boil. Cut the zucchini and the remaining 2 carrots into thin strips and add to the soup along with the remaining rutabaga cut into thin strips as well as a few pieces of chicken. Simmer about 15 minutes or until the vegetables are cooked, but still firm. Serve with the remaining snipped dill. You can also add noodles, marrow, or clos (matzah) balls.