What's your secret to a good chicken soup?

Chayalle

Mon, Oct 31 2016, 9:14 pm

amother wrote:

Ok--no laughing please. I have an electric range. When the soup starts boiling, I turn it down but then worry because it's not boiling that I'll get salmonella or something. Are you supposed to see bubbles when it simmers? Doesn't it all cook away if you don't cover it?

I also have an electric range. You should not turn it down so low that it doesn't bubble slightly. Turn it down only such that it bubbles a little bit when it simmers, but not a full boil that the water cooks out.

cbsp

Tue, Nov 01 2016, 11:38 pm

MagentaYenta wrote:

I start with a good stock. I make the stock first using two roasted chicken backs. Once they are cooled I cover them with 7 quarts of cold water. I bring that to a simmer, after a few hours you can smell the stock. Turn the heat off and strain. At this point you can use egg white to clarify the stock and make it clear. If you don't want to clarify you can start to make your soup using the veggies you and your family normally prefer, and adding extra cooked chicken if you prefer a meatier soup. Remember soup starts with a good stock,the other ingredients come later.

I'm genuinely curious about this.

The majority of chicken soup makers I know (for whom chicken soup is Jewish Food) - even those certifiable as "foodies" - do not make chicken soup from chicken stock. (Check the rest of the posts here as well.) Rather their soup is the stock... sort of. They use the stock technique for other soups so it's not a lack of knowledge per se.

What makes your method "correct" (proper?)?

MagentaYenta

Tue, Nov 01 2016, 11:57 pm

cbsp wrote:

Please quote me where I said it was correct/proper. I think you are reading a bit too much into my post. Just because I'm Jewish doesn't mean I have to make chicken soup your way. I personally don't enjoy the murky flavors of boil it all together for half a day. My preference is a layering of distinct flavors floating in a bath of pure chicken stock. You don't have to like my soup nor do I care whether you do.

cbsp

Wed, Nov 02 2016, 12:01 am

MagentaYenta wrote:

It was not meant as an attack. I am genuinely curious because of the last sentence in your post ("Remember soup starts with a good stock,the other ingredients come later") which seemed like an assertion to me.

I understand about not liking it done the other way. I haven't yet found a method for chicken soup that I like yet...

MagentaYenta

Wed, Nov 02 2016, 12:26 am

cbsp wrote:

I'm going to walk through this slowly with you. 'good soup starts with a good stock', is a common assertion in the world of cooking. I happen to agree with it. You don't.

cbsp

Wed, Nov 02 2016, 12:32 am

MagentaYenta wrote:

I'm going to walk through this slowly with you. 'good soup starts with a good stock', is a common assertion in the world of cooking. I happen to agree with it. You don't.

I didn't say that I don't.

I'm wondering why this assertion seems to be true for most soups except for traditionally made chicken soup. You were pretty much the only poster (maybe one other. I'm not counting those that add the cubes) who mentioned the use of stock so I used your post to further the discussion - method wise - as to what makes a good chicken soup.

elaela

Wed, Nov 02 2016, 5:19 am

ok this the way I do it- my guests love it and my family asks for it at least 5 x /week...

I boil two huge pots and freeze in small containers, so basically half of my freezer is always occupied by chickensoup Smile

2 large yellow onions, cut in half WITH PEEL - fry them in a drop of oil together with 1 laurel leaf, 4 black pepper kernles and 2 juniper berries.

add 1 kg chickenbones, (and a bit of chickenskin or meat- whatever you have - it is optionla)

cover with water and let simmer for 3 hours.

peel 3 carrots, 1 parsley root and a clove of garlic- add to the soup and let simmer for another 45 minutes.

NOW add enough salt.

finished!!!!

We serve it with noodles, knajdlach, croutons, vegetables, ...YOU NAME IT....my kids favorite version is with RICE.

JoyInTheMorning

Wed, Nov 02 2016, 7:54 am

I use

- one whole chicken plus neck (if available)
- 3-4 thick carrots, sliced
- 3-4 parsnips, sliced
- 3-4 stalks of celery, halved
- 1 onion, peeled but left whole
- 6-8 peppercorns
- 2 cloves of garlic
- salt to taste (probably around 1 tablespoon)
- 1 bunch fresh dill

If you have an infuser or cheescloth bag, put pepercorns and garlic in that; otherwise just try to make sure you get them out before you serve the soup.

Put all the ingredients except dill in an 8 quart pot, and fill with water until an inch from the top. Bring to a boil, skimming off scum several times. When it comes to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and simmer for 3-4 hours. Around half an hour or an hour before you are done, put in the dill, bring to boil again, and again, reduce to a simmer. (In sha'at had'chak, as when you get get home two hours before candelighting, two hours is barely sufficient. Plus the flavors will continue to develop as it sits on the blech, so you'll be okay. But if you come home less then two hours before Shabbat, you don't have much of a chance of making a great chicken soup.)

Many years ago I used to also put in a few meat bones, along with a marrow bone, but I stopped due to fear of spread of Mad Cow Disease. That was so delicious!

I strongly disagree with MagentaYenta about first making a stock and then building the soup from that. Stock is essentially a cook's way of shortening the cooking time needed for many dishes. You obviously can make a soup much more quickly if you have previously made stock.

But you won't get the wonderful flavor of traditionally made soup, which is a combination of freshness plus concentrated intense flavor. You'll get the concentrated intense flavor. You won't get the freshness. It's the freshness that distinguishes traditional Jewish chicken soup from what professional cooks do.

Plus, the beauty of chicken soup is that each batch that you make, even with the same set of ingredients, has its own special, unique flavor. When you use stock, everything tends to taste the same.

I understand why professional cooks use chicken (and other kinds of) stock. I get that stock making is an important technique in the kitchen. But for the kind of traditional Jewish chicken soup that speaks to our hearts, use the traditional method.

We are not Escoffier; we are not Brillat-Savarin. We are Jewish cooks with a worthy and delicious tradition of our own, and we should be proud of it and maintain it.

Laiya

Wed, Nov 02 2016, 10:51 am

Mevater wrote:

Has anyone been able to get an amazing Chicken soup with no added salt or flavoring powder/cubes (with only natural ingredients and no salt).

I never use flavoring cubes.

Haven't tried making chicken soup with no salt, but in other recipes, I've successfully substituted salt and soup mix for onion powder, or a combination of onion and garlic powder, with no noticeable difference, although you may need to increase the amount of the onion powder. I would definitely try that with chicken soup.

I also add 1-3 T. hot paprika (depending on the size of the pot I'm using); if you don't like spicy you can still get a lot of flavor from sweet paprika, or a combination of sweet and hot paprika.

For extra flavor, I sometimes add a pinch of cumin.

As far as vegetables, I find celery root and dill really make a difference.

Eta that, as others have said, simmering for a while (3 hrs. or more) also makes it more flavorful, because the flavors condense as the water evaporates.

PinkFridge

Wed, Nov 02 2016, 11:00 am

Magenta Yenta said:
I start with a good stock. I make the stock first using two roasted chicken backs. Once they are cooled I cover them with 7 quarts of cold water. I bring that to a simmer, after a few hours you can smell the stock. Turn the heat off and strain. At this point you can use egg white to clarify the stock and make it clear. If you don't want to clarify you can start to make your soup using the veggies you and your family normally prefer, and adding extra cooked chicken if you prefer a meatier soup. Remember soup starts with a good stock,the other ingredients come later.

So nu, what does come later?
I've heard about using roasted chicken or bones to give a rich soup, and I tried it once, too much of a patchke. Like a lot of other posters, I just pack the pot with chicken/turkey and/or parts.
(Which IMO are salty enough that I never add salt, and not everyone salts it at the table, either. I do add dill seeds.)

Laiya

Wed, Nov 02 2016, 11:07 am

Mevater wrote:

Me too. It makes a real difference. But sometimes I wonder how natural the onion and garlic powders are.

I thought you meant you don't want to use the soup mix. But if you don't want to use onion or garlic powder, and you don't care whether the soup has that "clear" look, I'd experiment with frying onions.

Sometimes I'll pour the soup to reheat into a pot that I had just used for frying onions, without washing the pot first, so the soup ends up with bits of fried onions in it, and that also gives a nice flavor.

Fwiw I just looked at my Pereg onion powder, and it claims to have no additives or preservatives (which I actually believe because it tends to clump together).

sweetpotato

Wed, Nov 02 2016, 11:37 am

I do what my MIL does, which is the following:

Small unpeeled onion, roughly chopped carrots (big pieces), celery (especially the leafy parts), and/or celery root, bay leaf, and chicken pieces (plus the neck). Enough water to cover the chicken pieces, but not so much that they are floating. Bring to a strong simmer, skim off scum occasionally as it rises to the surface, and cook for 1-2 hours. Then I take out the chicken and the vegetables, shred/chop them, and add them back in (minus the onion, celery leaves and bay leaf, which I discard), and add some finely diced fresh carrot and celery and the shredded/chopped chicken, and a bunch of fresh dill, and salt/pepper. Carefully add additional water but not so much that it dilutes the soup. Simmer for another 30 minutes, and until ready to serve.

This almost always turns out great.

Someone asked about water great soup without any additional salt. You can make good soup with no salt in the cooking process (if you have someone eating the soup who can't have much salt), and then allow people to salt to their tastes at the table. Adding lemon juice to your bowl of soup can also help brighten the flavor without salt. There will be a tradeoff if you truly can't use even a dash of salt in the final product.

rfeig613

Wed, Nov 02 2016, 11:44 am

Lots of bones, feeselech (yes, they look gross, and no, we don't eat them, but they add good gelatinous body to the broth), wings, backs, necks, and a whole bird, carrots, celery, onion, parsley root, parsnip, whole garlic cloves, thyme, dill, flat leaf parsley, bay leaf, peppercorns (I put all the herbs in a Bodek bag). I skim the scum off the top every 15 minutes, as the broth cooks for a good 6-7 hours, and after cooking, I strain in a Chinois. The cooled and strained soup goes in the fridge overnight, and the schmaltz is carefully taken off the top the next day and used for matzah ball soup and chopped liver, and my favorite snack (me and DH love schmaltz schmeared on corn rye with a sprinkle of coarse salt.)

The clear, strained soup is reheated and served with fresh herbs, poached chicken breast, lokshen, matzah balls, kreplach, etc. Depends on the mood. We believe in the power of bone broth and try to have chicken soup always on Shabbos, but also once again during the week to ward off colds and whatnot.