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Finding yourself longing for a hot bowl of your grandmother’s chicken soup and wondering what you’re going to do now that she’s not around to make it? Fearing the holiday celebration won’t be the same without your mom making the festive meal? I’ll let you in on a Balaboosta’s Secret. Chicken soup is one of the easiest, soul soothing dishes to make. Time to put your big girl pants on and step up to the plate or in this case, the soup pot.

Ingredients Needed for Chicken Soup

Do not be intimidated by the thought of making chicken soup. Fortunately for us, there is no one right or wrong way to make chicken soup. You don’t need knife skills or precise measuring of the ingredients to conjure a soup to rival your family’s favorite version. Easy is as easy does. The recipe itself is flexible, forgiving and made with much leeway for  interpertations and traditions.   Other than the need for some chicken, there are only a few key ingredients you’ll need to make your grandmother proud.

The most common ingredients to throw in your soup pot along with your chicken include some variation of carrots, parsnips, onions or leeks, celery or celery root, parsley, thyme, dill and bay leaves.

Some grocery stores even sell a prepackaged mixture of fresh herbs and vegetables called soup mix or soup greens. This is particularly helpful for those who can’t tell a turnip from a parsnip (hint- a turnip is shaped like a white globe with a splash of purple near its top, parsnips are also whitish in color but are shaped like carrots. Both can be used in chicken soup- when in doubt, go for the parsnips!). If you buy the prepackaged mixes, buy at leat two- sometimes up to 4 packs. The veggies and herbs in these packs are often on the skimpy size. You can also buy some packs and then just add more onions, carrots. celery and herbs.

The more veggies and herbs you use, the more flavorful your soup will be.

What To Add to the Finished Soup

There are as many ways to serve chicken soup as there are ethnicities, traditions and flavor profiles. The possibilities are as limitless as your creativity and imagination. Here are just a few ideas to get you started:

  • Add shredded roasted chicken (or chicken from the soup itself), carrots and dill
  • Add matzo balls- If truth be told I make mine from a mix. I follow the instructions on the box and add a tablespoon of club soda and fresh herbs. For some fun you can add pureed spinach and parsley to your mix/batter to make green matzo balls. As an alternative, you could add a splash of tomato paste and tumeric and make red matzo balls. During holiday time, my cousin hides an almond in just one matzo ball. Whoever is lucky enough to get that matzo ball in their soup wins a prize.
  • Add my “Grandma Sippi’s” egg noodles. Whisk two eggs with a splash of corn starch, potato starch or tapioca starch. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a small nonstick pan. Add a small amount of the egg mix and swirl to make a thin crepe like layer in the pan. When the egg starts to firm up, flip it to heat the other side. Remove from pan and continue with remaining batter.  Stack the crepes on top of each other and roll the stack into a jelly roll. Slice the jelly roll into thin strips. These strips are your egg noodles. Yum.
  • Beat an egg with a splash of soy sauce, sesame oil, corn starch and thin slices of scallion. Slowly pour egg mixture into boiling chicken soup. Stir. Congrats, you’ve just made egg drop soup!
  • Beat together 2 eggs, parmesan cheese, parsley and salt. Add to boiling chicken soup. Stir. Add large handful of baby spinach. Bingo- you’ve just made stracciatella soup!

Once you see for yourself how easy it is to make delicious chicken soup, you’ll understand why it is the broth that you’ll turn to time and again for special occassions and for just becauses. It even freezes beautifully so make as much as your stock pots can hold . Now let’s get cooking.

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Easy Homemade Chicken Soup

A simple to make chicken soup whose flavor would make your gramdma proud.
Course Main Course or Side Dish
Prep Time 15 minutes
Servings 3 quarts
Author Linda Lederman

Ingredients

  • 3-4 lbs. whole chicken, cut up into parts (you can buy whole chickens already cut up)
  • 2-3 parsnips, cut into big chunks
  • 3- 4 celery stalks, broken in half
  • 1-2 onions, quartered, no need to peel
  • 6-8 garlic cloves
  • fresh parsley, generous handful
  • fresh dill, generous handful, optional
  • fresh thyme, several sprigs, optional
  • whole peppercorns, optional
  • salt, to taste

Instructions

  • Combine all ingredients in a stockpot. Add water to cover ingredients. Add additional water so that the ingredients are covered by approxximately 4 inches of water. No need to be exact.
  • Bring to a boil. Cover stockpot and lower the heat to bring the soup to a gentle simmer (ie. it produces a few small bubbles at a time). Cook soup 2-3 hours until meat easily falls off the chicken bones.
  • Strain soup, pressing on the vegetables and chicken so as to extract as much flavor and juice as possible. Salt and pepper to taste.

Notes

  1. If soup is refrigerated, a layer of fat may rise to the top of your container. For a healthier soup, just skim off the fat and discard.
  2. Save the chicken that was in the stock. You can add it back to the soup or shred it and use it as a base for chicken tacos or chicken salad. 

Love to hear your secrets for making your family’s traditional chicken soup. Please share your tips in the comments below. If you made this recipe, show off your creativity by posting a picture of it below. Thanks, smiles.

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