chicken soup

Chicken soup is the only acceptable Friday Night Soup.  I'm sorry, but it's true (I'm talking to you, Jacqueline!).  Nothing screams "Shabbos!" more than a hot bowl of chicken soup along with Osem's croutons.  Any other soup is just confusing and leaves me wondering whether it's really Shabbos or not.  Split pea soup, your green color has no right to be on my Shabbos table.  Mushroom barley? What is your chewy, hearty goodness doing on Friday night when I'm about to follow the soup course with even more food?  Only the clean, simple yumminess that is chicken soup will cut it. And I will never say no to a matzah ball.



My mom always makes a huge batch once a month, divvy's it up into weekly portions and freezes it.  I've continued her tradition and do the same and wow it makes life easier.  Not only easy, but I get a lot more than just chicken soup out of it.  I use every bit that pot gives me and make it into as many meals as possible.  I only freeze the dark meat and carrots with the broth, so there is a lot of leftover goodies.  I use the leftover veggies as either a side dish for a dinner one night (Bryan loves this), or I incorporate it into another meal, like I did this week with leftover chicken and some tomato sauce, a fried onion, canned pink beans, fennel seeds and charif making a delicious chicken stew.  I freeze the discarded bones and joints for chicken stock at a later date.  Personally, I only like the dark meat in my soup, and I use the chicken breasts to make an awesome chicken pot pie (recipe coming!).

The tool that makes this go as smoothly as possible is tongs. I use the tongs to grab everything; from discarding the dill to removing all of the vegetables and chicken into a separate bowl and plate, to picking the meat off of the bones.  Tongs are one of my favorite kitchen tools.

I  make my soup in an 8 quart pot, but if you have a bigger pot and want to make more just fill it with water till the top (with enough space on top to ensure no spillage) and throw in some more chicken pieces, like an extra thigh or two.  Salt should be to taste, but realize you're salting an enormous pot and a lot of salt is needed.  If you like vegetables in your soup, defrost a container before Shabbos, add desired vegetables and simmer until vegetables are soft.  This will give you an even more flavorful chicken soup.

my mother's chicken soup recipe:

Cook time: 1.5- 3 hours, depending on your preference
Servings per quart: 4
Calories per serving of soup (only broth, chicken and carrots): 120 (approximately)

1 whole chicken, cut in 1/4's
4 large carrots, cut into 2 inch pieces

2 stalks celery
1 zucchini
1 parsnip
1 large onion
1 turnip
1 sweet potato (I only ever add this when I have it on hand)
1 bunch of dill
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tsp pepper
salt
water


Place the chicken, onion, celery, turnip and parsnip in your pot and cover with water, leaving 2 inches free on the top.  Add the garlic powder, onion powder and pepper.  Bring to a boil, uncovered. Skim off the scum with a spoon.  Lower to a simmer and cover.  After an hour, add your zucchini, carrots and dill. Cook for at least another half an hour, but you can let it go for a total of 3 hours if you're just not ready to separate the soup.
Remove the vegetables and chicken.  Remove the dark meat (and white meat, if desired) from the bones.  Divide the chicken and carrots equally into 4 or 5 quart containers.  Cover with broth and freeze.  There should be enough broth leftover for your current Shabbos, along with the vegetables and chicken.