Chicken Soup

Morning Glory

Obsessive cook
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Chicken soup or Jewish penicillin as it is sometimes known - it always comes up on list of comfort foods. Do you ever make it? Do you have a traditional family recipe? Its rather more of a tradition in the USA than it is in the UK (I think). How do you make it?
 
Growing up the only kind of soup that I had was that condensed Campbell's soup. Open the can. Add water, call it a day. It was horrible. As a kid I didn't know any better. I decided that I didn't like "soup", and that I wouldn't eat it anymore.

Fast forward a few years. I'm 21, married to my lovely wife. I'm not feeling well. She decides to make me some home made Chicken soup. I tell her thanks, but I don't really eat soup. She gives me this weird look. Says whatever, and makes it anyways. As its cooking the smell is amazing. I think to myself "self", this doesn't smell like any soup that you have ever eaten.

I of course try it, and it WOW........I mean, holy shit. This was some of the best soup that I have ever eaten. The only noodles that we had on hand was bow tie noodles. That's what she used. To this day I still require her to use bow tie noodles lol.

I don't make it. I know it won't be as good as what she does. Why mess with perfection.

Her ingredients are simple. Chicken, broth, onions, celery, carrots, salt, pepper. I'm possibly missing something. If I remember I'll inquire with her tonight.

B
 
My mother and mother-in-law used to make fantastic chicken soup fairly often, especially if someone was sick.

Their recipes were much like detroitdad's in their simplicity, except my mil would add a load of fresh, chopped parsley towards the end of cooking.

Also, the key to making a good soup was use a whole, skinless chicken, and to continually skim any foam/scum that floated to the surface when the chicken was initially boiled in broth. When the foam stopped forming, the heat was reduced and the diced veggies added (onions, celery, carrots). After about an hour, the chicken was removed, the bones picked out, and the meat was chopped and put back in the pot to continue simmering a bit longer.

A kind of strange thing my mil did was to add parboiled, cubed potatoes near the end of cooking to finish in the soup, then she would serve the soup over wide egg noodles.

It's a double hit of starch, but it's really filling, which I guess is good for someone who doesn't feel well enough to eat much.
 
I use chicken thighs, remove the skin and excess fat (reserve both) then boil the chicken in chicken broth until done. Remove chicken, cool a bit and shred or cut up. Then, I either use frozen mixed vegetables or I small dice pieces of carrots, onions, potatoes. Cut up fresh green beans into small pieces and/or use frozen thawed green peas, and sometimes thawed frozen corn kernels. Meanwhile, I render the fat and the skin until crisp in a small skillet, remove to drain, then chop or slice up into pieces and reserve. Then, I cook the onion in the fat until starting to get translucent, add a tiny bit of flour to make a very loose roux. Bring the chicken stock back to a boil, cook the carrots for a few minutes, then add potatoes and cook for a couple of minutes, then green beans and/or peas and corn. Stir in the chicken and the roux, and bring back to a boil until very slightly thickened and serve in bowls with chopped up chicken skin and cracklings as a garnish on top.

If I use noodles, I leave out the potatoes. I do cook the noodles separately since they will soak up the chicken stock.
 
What a great idea! Transformed into a gourmet treat...

Yep, I don't know what made me decide to do that, but what a difference it made. I now save the fat and chicken skin in the freezer from when we have other dishes so we'll have extra!

Oh, and cellophane/glass noodles make a good noodle for soup as well.
 
As mentioned on another thread, chicken and corn soup Chinese style. Really popular 20 odd years ago, I still make for the family as a treat. I normally make with 1 whole chicken and freeze what we don't eat.

Russ
 
As mentioned on another thread, chicken and corn soup Chinese style. Really popular 20 odd years ago, I still make for the family as a treat. I normally make with 1 whole chicken and freeze what we don't eat.

Russ

I'm not keen on sweetcorn but I like the idea of it in a Chinese style soup. Maybe I am remembering something I once had from a Chinese Takeaway back in the day. If anyone wants to post it as a Recipe thread I will try to make it.
 
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I want to try and make it myself. I only have three boneless chicken breasts and no chicken stock/broth on hand. Will boiling the three boneless chicken breasts give me enough stock to make soup?
 
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