Jewish Penicillin: My Grandmother’s Chicken Soup

(Last Updated On: January 31, 2015)

 

Every family has a chicken soup recipe and every family is sure theirs is the best.  I won’t argue the merits of your grandmother’s soup over mine.

All I can say is that this is the ONLY soup I want when I am truly down and out, either physically or emotionally.

It’s got a specific and distinctive flavor that is unlike any of the other chicken soups I’ve tried over the years. I’ve tried soup with ginger and soup with cloves, soup with garlic and lemon, soup with jalepeno. They are all wonderfully delicious but I don’t prescribe them, I prescribe this!

In a sickie pinch it can be made it via a few short cuts (see cheater version at the end of this recipe) but the resulting soup is never going to measure up to the real deal. Sometimes you have to do things the old fashioned way to get it right.

In order to be my authentic grandma approved Jewish Penicillin chicken soup there are three strict rules that must be observed:

• It has to be perfectly clear broth.
• It has to have been made with a kosher chicken
• It has to have celery root (celeraic), dill and parsnips in the broth.

It’s difficult for me to write out this recipe.  I have never measured ingredients while making it. I first made this with my grandmother by my side. Over many years of breathing the steam as it cooked, it has steeped into my memory. No measuring or referring to anything written.

It’s practically a dream state as I make it. I just stand in the kitchen and soup happens.  

Ingredients:

• One Kosher Chicken, rinsed, skin on or off. Broth will be fattier, but more flavorful if you leave the skin on. The chicken can be a cut up chicken.*
• 5-7 large carrots, peeled and sliced in discs
• one whole onion
• 2-3 washed slicd leeks (optional – this was not part of the original recipe)
• one small knob celery, peeled and diced
• 2-3 parsnips, peeled and chopped into discs or diced
• 4-5 stalks celery, chopped into moons
• One bunch parsley
• One bunch dill
• 1 tsp peppercorns
• salt to taste.

*If you have the gizzards (aka “pupiks”) consider using them in the broth. When we were kids we used to fight over them when the soup was done. I had no idea I was eating a gizzard! My grandmother also used the chicken neck. I don’t. I hate all the tiny bones – they are a pain to get out of the soup later. 

The first step of the soup is the key to clear broth so pay attention here. It’s a little time consuming but basically mindless work. 

Get out the largest soup pot you own and put the rinsed chicken in it. Cover the chicken with COLD water. Add enough water that the chicken is well covered but remember you will be adding veggies later. You can also add more water later, but you must only add boiling water to the pot once the soup has been heated or you will have (g-d forbid) a cloudy broth.

Heat the cold water slowly to just almost a boil. You can cover the pot but take care not to let it get to a hard boil.**

Just before the boil a frothy substance will start to rise from the chicken. Using a fine wire mesh strainer, skim this froth off the top and discard in your sink. Rinse the strainer. Repeat. It will take many many passes to get rid of all the froth.

Stir the chicken gently and put a movie on or call a friend on speakerphone and just keep skimming just keep skimming…

**If your broth does boil hard because you got a little temporarily distracted, and the scum sticks to the sides of the pot, you can wrap a paper towel around the side of a butter knife and gently wipe it away. That’s a total grandma trick that she taught me. 

Eventually you’ll decide you cannot possibly skim any more and it’s time to get on with the soup. Add all the chopped vegetables except the parsley, dill, leeks and onion.

Guess what. You may have to skim again in about ten to fifteen minutes, but usually that is it.

My grandmother taught me to add in a whole onion (easy to fish out later) and tie the herbs in a bunch. She did not use leeks. That is my addition.

I like to cram the herbs, some chopped leek and the onion into a massive tea ball thing I have. It’s so handy! It was made for making mulled cider, but  happens to be perfect for making chicken soup as well. This saves me the hassle of going fishing for the items I want to remove when the soup is done.  My favorite pot to cook the soup in is this “Caldera.” It is very broad but not too terribly deep which is perfect for access when skimming. It makes a big batch of soup!

Let the soup simmer (gentle, this is key) for 2-3 hours. I like to leave a lid on the pot, but keep it slightly cracked. This way you don’t lose too much to evaporation and I find on the low setting on my stove it stays right at that boiling point, without boiling too hard.

The soup is done when the chicken is cooked and the broth is flavorful. Don’t let it go too long or your veggies will get too mushy.

Prior to serving the soup:

Remove the soup greens (parsley and dill), leeks if you used them and whole onion and discard.

Remove the chicken, de-bone and set aside. Add to soup as desired or make chicken salad.

To serve:

Ask your lucky chicken soup recipients how much vegetables & meat they prefer in their soup. Some people (aka my mom) just like the broth, please.

Add a side of starch, if you wish, including rice, noodles, matzoh balls or just serve with some good bread to dunk.

Serve steaming hot and inhale the aroma, if you are ill.

The soup can be made a day ahead if you wish. Store the veggies and soup and chicken separately and combine when you reheat. When the soup chills the fat will solidify and be easy to remove  if you wish to have less fat in your soup,  You can also try skimming the fat with a fat skimming ladle and/or removing the skin & fat prior to boiling the chicken.

Other add ins:

• Siracha
• Chili Flakes

Chicken Soup Cheater Version:

• 1-2 boxes of Trader Joes Chicken broth
• 1 container Mirepoix
• 1/2 celery knob
• 2 carrots
• 1-2 parsnips
• parsley & dill
• some water
• 2 chicken breasts

Throw all of the above in a pot and bring to a gentle boil for an hour or so. Remove the cooked chicken, dice or shred and add it back into the pot.

It won’t measure up to the real deal. It will be cloudy and less flavorful.  But if you are sick, it may just do the trick. Be sure to eat the veggies – much of the healing magic is in them.

Can’t get a kosher chicken? Fake it. Soak your non kosher chicken in a kosher salt brine for a couple of hours in the fridge before you rinse and use it. It won’t be as good, but it will make a huge difference and you will usually also have less skimming to do.