My Mom’s Chicken Soup
Chicken Soup is the electric blanket of food. You turn it on, heat it up, get yourself a bowlful and you feel warm and snuggly all over. Quickly.
Could there be something, anything better on a cold or dark, gloomy, wintry, rainy day?
It isn’t particularly cold here today in Connecticut. But it is dark, gloomy, wintry and rainy.
Time to make Chicken Soup from my mother’s wonderful recipe. She would always make this soup on dark, gloomy, wintry, rainy days. Here is her recipe:
My Mom’s Chicken Soup
1 large whole chicken
water
4 carrots, peeled
3 stalks celery, peeled
1 medium parsnip, peeled
1 large onion, left whole but peeled
small bunch of fresh dill
1 tablespoon salt, or salt to taste
6-8 whole black peppercorns
Wash the chicken inside and out, remove pinfeathers and hairs and place it in a soup pot. Pour enough water in the pot to cover the chicken by 1-inch. Bring the liquid to a boil, lower the heat and for the next several minutes, remove any scum that rises to the surface. Add the carrots, celery, parsnip, onion, dill, salt and peppercorns. Cover the pan partially and simmer the soup for 2-1/2 to 3 hours or until the chicken meat is very soft when pierced with the tip of a sharp knife. Pour the soup through a strainer or colander into a large bowl or a second pot. Set the chicken and vegetables aside. Remove the fat from the surface of the liquid with a spoon or fat-skimming tool or by patting paper towels on the surface. For best results, refrigerate the strained soup; when it is cold, the fat will rise to the surface and harden and you can scoop it off. (Refrigerate the vegetables and the chicken separately.) Serve the soup plain or with the vegetables (cut them up) and chicken (remove the meat from the bones and cut it up). Makes 8 servings