Chicken Soup From The Heart Recipes

CHICKEN SOUP FROM THE HEART

Steps:

• Fill large soup pot with cold water.
• Add cleaned chicken pieces, peeled, whole yellow onion, and dill.
• Cook on stovetop on a high heat until water just starts to boil.
• Reduce heat to simmer, but do not cover the pot.
• The chicken will bring up it's brown foam, remove it as it comes up. You may add more preboiled water to the pot if the amount of water in the pot has been reduced to 3/4, but not more than once.
• After 1.5 hours of simmering, raise the heat to medium and add the carrots and salt.
• Slowly add 1/2 cup of Osem Consomme seasoning mix and stir through, to make sure that no seasoning mix is stuck to the bottom of the pot.
• Reduce heat back to simmer and continue to simmer for an additional 30 minutes.
• Add the celery and cook for 5-10 minutes more, until the celery is no longer firm, but not yet tender (it will continue to cook even when the heat is turned off).
• Remove from heat, and cover pot. Let stand 15-20 minutes, until celery just tender.
• Remove all chicken, carrots, onion, dill, and celery from soup and place in separate container.
• Transfer soup from the pot through the cheesecloth to a different pot, or container of your choice. Do this slowly, as the soup is still hot, ensuring that all the soup pass through the cheesecloth before being transferred to another pot. You may need another couple of hands to help you hold the cheesecloth over the second pot. This is a crucial step of the recipe, because it ensures that your final product is a clear broth. Also, this is a way to trim the fat, and allows the palate to taste the chicken soup rather than the chicken fat.
• Discard whatever is left on the cheesecloth.
• Serve the broth clear with either a carrot and a celery, or, you may add fine noodles or a kreplach for a perfect Jewish Chicken Soup.
• Enjoy!

CHICKEN SOUP FROM SCRATCH

Steps:

• Place the chicken, celery, carrots, onions, parsnip (if using), parsley, peppercorns, bay leaves and salt in a large soup pot and cover with cold water by 1 inch.
• Bring to a boil over high heat, then immediately reduce the heat to very low. Adjust the heat until the soup is "smiling": barely moving on the surface, with an occasional bubble breaking through. Cook uncovered, until the chicken is very tender and falling off the bone, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
• When cool enough to handle, use tongs to transfer chicken from the pot to a container. Taste the broth and continue to simmer it until it is concentrated and tasty. Strain broth through a fine sieve (or a colander lined with cheesecloth) into a separate container. Discard all the solids from the strainer (or reserve the vegetables, chill and serve with vinaigrette, if you wish).
• Refrigerate chicken pieces and broth separately for at least 8 hours (or up to 3 days), until a thick layer of yellow fat has risen to the top of the broth.
• When ready to finish the soup, use your fingers to separate chicken breast meat from bones and skin. Discard bones and skin. Use two forks to pull the breast meat apart into soft chunks, or use a knife and cut into bite-size pieces. (Reserve dark meat for another use.)
• Skim chicken fat from top of broth and set aside. Place 3 tablespoons of the fat in a soup pot with a lid. Add leeks, stir to coat, and heat over medium heat until leeks begin to fry. Then reduce the heat to a gentle sizzle and cook, stirring often, until slightly softened, about 3 minutes.
• Add carrots, sprinkle with salt, stir, and cover the pot. Cook until vegetables are just tender, about 5 minutes more. (Keep in mind that vegetables will continue to cook in the soup.) Do not brown.
• Pour broth into pot with vegetables and heat to a simmer. Add noodles and simmer until heated through, soft and plumped with chicken broth. Add the breast meat, then taste broth and add salt and pepper to taste. For best flavor, soup should have some golden droplets of fat on top; if needed, add more chicken fat one teaspoon at a time.
• Serve immediately, in a tureen or from the pot, sprinkling each serving with herbs.

ULTIMATE COMFORT: CHICKEN SOUP FROM THE HEART

Steps:

• Clean chicken, put it in an 8 to 10 quart soup pot, and add enough water to fill the pot about 3/4 of the way. Put on a relatively high flame and cover. When the scummy stuff begins to come out of the chicken (as it begins to boil), skim it off with a big spoon and toss it out. Bring to a slow boil or a fast simmer (sounds like a dance step, eh?), and cook about another 30 minutes.
• Add onions, garlic, carrots, celery, and zucchini. Continue to cook for about another hour or two.
• Add parsley and dill, and salt and pepper to taste. Cook another 30 minutes, then taste to adjust seasoning.
• If you want to make it more lean, cool the soup down, skim off the fat and reheat.
• Enjoy!