Chicken Vegetable Soup

After all of the end-of-year holidays, a lot of us need to scale back eating and spending— which makes this Chicken Vegetable Soup such a winner. I make it with a leftover chicken carcass — there’s still plenty of meat on it (I’ve also used a turkey carcass). There are also lots of healthy vegetables (you could add others such as green beans) and a boost of chick peas (I’ve also used white beans; red beans would also be fine).

Like spicy? Add a bit of harissa or hot sauce to the liquid when you add the other seasonings.

This dish is filling, nourishing, uncomplicated and easy to make. Delicious too. And cheap.

Give it a try.

Chicken Vegetable Soup

• 1 28-ounce can tomatoes plus the liquid

• chicken carcass and scraps

• 3 carrots, peeled and sliced 1-inch thick

• 2 stalks celery, peeled, leaves included if available, and sliced 1-inch thick

• 1 medium onion, sliced

• water to cover (or use vegetable or chicken stock)

• salt and pepper

• 2-3 sprigs fresh thyme, marjoram or oregano

• 1 15-ounce can chick peas or white beans, drained

• 2 cups zucchini

Cut the canned tomatoes into smaller pieces; save the liquid from the can. Place the chicken carcass, carrots, celery, onion and tomatoes plus liquid in a soup pot. Add enough water to just cover the ingredients. Add salt, pepper and the chosen fresh herb and bring the liquid to a boil over high heat. Lower the heat and simmer for 3-1/2 hours. Add the beans and zucchini and cook for another 20 minutes.

Makes 8-10 servings

Bones and Vegetable Soup

A friend of mine, who is not Jewish, asked me how to make “real Jewish chicken soup.” I gave him my recipe, which he said was similar to his mother’s Italian version (except mine included dill).

But when I saw him a few days later he was dismayed about the soup. He said it tasted better than delicious but that when it was cold it got all gelled up and jiggly. His mother’s soup never did that.

Ah. Gelled liquid. The sign of great soup. Soup made with bones. Bones with collagen that melts slowly and surely and enriches the broth, giving it abundant, old fashioned flavor. Soup broth the way it’s supposed to be.

Memorable.

My friend was thrilled he hadn’t made a mistake. He smiled when I told him his soup was probably better than his mama’s.

Robbie’s success got me to thinking about making some soup of course. And fortunately I had just the right ingredients: chicken bones. Almost four pounds of them, from KOL Foods.

KOL Foods produces Glatt kosher poultry, beef and lamb and brings a new level of humanity to the way they treat their stock. For any meat to be kosher, the animals must be slaughtered in a particular — humane — way. KOL Foods upped the standard. Their animals are raised humanely too, with an eye toward sustainability. The chickens, turkey and ducks are free-roaming and fed an organic, GMO-free, vegetarian diet; they are not given arsenic, antibiotics or hormones.

The company has an eye for your budget too. Poultry can be expensive and kosher poultry even more so.

Hence the chicken bones, which the company sells in packages for shipment and are a lot cheaper than whole chickens or parts. The bones deliver a delicious broth and there’s enough meat on them to make a filling dish. My almost 4 pounds of bones yielded more than 3 cups of cut up meat.

This is the soup I made with them: rich, rib-sticking, comforting and wonderful. The liquid gels when it’s chilled. The way it’s supposed to.

Bones and Vegetable Soup

3-4 pounds meaty chicken bones

12 cups water

2/3 cup barley

2 onions, sliced

1/2 cup dried mushroom pieces, soaked, softened and chopped

3-4 carrots, sliced

2-3 stalks celery, sliced

2 parsnips, sliced

8 sprigs fresh dill

6 sprigs fresh parsley

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 15-ounce can white beans, rinsed and drained

1 small zucchini, diced

1 cup frozen peas

Place the chicken in a soup pot and cover with the water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Lower the heat to a simmer and for the next several minutes, discard the debris that comes to the surface. Add the barley, onions, mushrooms, carrots, celery, parsnips, dill, parsley and salt and pepper. Simmer, partially covered, for one hour. Add the beans, zucchini and peas and cook for another 50-60 minutes. Remove the bones and cut off bits of chicken; place the chicken meat back into the soup. Discard the bones.

Makes 8 servings

My Mom’s Chicken Soup

Gosh I need my mother and some chicken soup.

I have an annoying cold and fever and so, so wish my mother was here to make some chicken soup for me. She made such good chicken soup, always with a large chicken, I think maybe a stewing hen. A kosher one with soft flesh and the right amount of salt that flavors the soup perfectly.

And always fresh dill. She taught me that it isn’t real chicken soup without fresh dill.

Well, I don’t happen to have a large kosher stewing hen in the house.

But I do have a small roaster! AND I do have fresh dill. AND I do have carrots, parsnips and onions in the bin. I always have carrots, parsnips and onions in the bin.

So, I’ll be the Little Red Hen. I’ll make the soup myself. 

I know this recipe is good because I’ve used it all my life, with whatever size chicken I happen to have in the fridge or freezer.

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

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