Homemade Chicken Soup Recipes

CLASSIC HOMEMADE CHICKEN SOUP

Steps:

• Cut up your chicken into pieces (thighs, legs, breasts, etc) and place in a large stock pot.
• Fill with cold water to cover and put on high heat as you assemble the rest of the ingredients.
• Cut up all of your veggies. You can do this any way you like, but I like to leave these in large pieces so they don't get too mushy during the long cooking time.
• You can tie your dill and parsley together if you like.
• Put all the veggies and herbs into the pot.
• Add extra water if needed.
• Bring to a boil, and then let simmer.
• Simmer for 2-4 hours*.
• *The cook time is largely up to you. I like to cook mine for many hours to get all of the flavors out of the chicken, but really, once the chicken is cooked through, you can take it off the fire.
• If you prefer to have smaller pieces of carrots, potatoes, or celery in your soup, dice as much as you want and put it into the pot 30-40 minutes before it's done.
• ***TIP: There will be A LOT of fat on the top of this soup from the chicken skin. Traditionally, you would cook this the day before, refrigerate over night, and then remove the hardened fat layer. Easy as pie. But, if you want it the same day, you will have to skim the fat as the cooking progresses. So watch the soup over the 2-4 hours of cooking and skim as you go.
• Add salt and pepper to taste. (you will need a lot of salt. Don't fret. Start off with a teaspoon. Taste. Add another pinch. Taste. Add. And so on until you reach desired flavor.
• Take all the chicken out of the pot and remove the meat from the bones and skin. Discard the bones and skin. You can replace the meat into the pot or leave it on the side for people to put into their individual bowls.
• Make egg noodles, rice, or dumplings to accompany.
• Eat and enjoy.

BASIC CHICKEN SOUP

Steps:

• Bring chicken, water, and 1 tablespoon salt to a boil in a large stockpot. Skim foam. Add onions, celery, and garlic. Reduce heat. Simmer, partially covered, for 30 minutes.
• Remove breast, and set aside. Add carrots. Simmer, partially covered, for 40 minutes.
• Remove remaining chicken; discard back and wings. Let cool slightly. Remove meat from bones, and cut into bite-size pieces.
• Stir in desired amount of chicken; reserve the rest for another use. Skim fat. Season with salt.

HOMEMADE CHICKEN SOUP

Steps:

• Put the chicken, carrots, celery and onion in a large soup pot and cover with cold water. Heat and simmer, uncovered, until the chicken meat falls off of the bones (skim off foam every so often).
• Take everything out of the pot. Strain the broth. Pick the meat off of the bones and chop the carrots, celery and onion. Season the broth with salt, pepper and chicken bouillon to taste, if desired. Return the chicken, carrots, celery and onion to the pot, stir together, and serve.

THE BEST CHICKEN SOUP EVER

Steps:

• Place chicken in a large pot and cover with water. Place celery leaves in pot and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until chicken is cooked through, 30 to 40 minutes. Remove chicken from pot and place in a bowl until cool enough to handle.
• Meanwhile, strain the cooking liquid, discard the celery tops and place the cooking liquid in a large pot. Place celery, carrots, onion, bouillon, soup mix and chicken broth in the pot and let simmer. Season with thyme, poultry seasoning, basil, peppercorns, bay leaves and parsley.
• Bone chicken and cut up meat into bite-size pieces. Return meat to pot. Cook until vegetables are tender and flavors are well blended, up to 90 minutes.
• Stir pasta into pot and cook 10 to 15 minutes more, until noodles are al dente. Serve hot.

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.

THE ULTIMATE CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP

Steps:

• Pat chicken dry with paper towels; sprinkle with salt and pepper. In a 6-qt. stockpot, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add chicken in batches, skin side down; cook until dark golden brown, 3-4 minutes. Remove chicken from pan; remove and discard skin. Discard drippings, reserving 2 tablespoons., Add onion to drippings; cook and stir over medium-high heat until tender, 4-5 minutes. Add garlic; cook 1 minute longer. Add broth, stirring to loosen browned bits from pan. Bring to a boil. Return chicken to pan. Add celery, carrots, bay leaves and thyme. Reduce heat; simmer, covered, until chicken is tender, 25-30 minutes., Transfer chicken to a plate. Remove soup from heat. Add noodles; let stand, covered, until noodles are tender, 20-22 minutes., Meanwhile, when chicken is cool enough to handle, remove meat from bones; discard bones. Shred meat into bite-sized pieces. Return meat to stockpot. Stir in parsley and lemon juice. If desired, adjust seasoning with additional salt and pepper. Discard bay leaves.

HOMEMADE CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP

Steps:

• Season chicken with salt and pepper.
• Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Cook chicken in the hot oil until browned on each side and no longer pink in the centers, about 10 minutes total. Transfer to a plate.
• Add remaining oil to the saucepan and saute celery, carrots, and garlic over medium heat until soft, 5 to 7 minutes. Season with pepper.
• Pour chicken broth into the cooked vegetables and deglaze by scraping up the bits of chicken and vegetables from the bottom of the hot pan. Bring to a boil. Add egg noodles, reduce heat medium-low, and simmer until noodles are tender yet firm to the bite, 6 to 8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper if necessary.
• Ladle soup into bowls and lay chicken on top.