Chicken Soup

Chicken Soup

Chicken soup is the most common homemade soup in Israel, and in many homes it is also the fixed dish of Friday night dinner. Its international nickname, Jewish penicillin, was born in 19th-century Europe and stuck in English — not because the soup cures anything, but because it was the first thing served to someone who was sick.

Technically it isn’t really a “soup” but a broth: all of its flavor is extracted from bones, meat and root vegetables into water, with no frying and no thickening. And that is exactly why it is so easy to ruin — almost every mistake in chicken soup is a mistake of heat, not of ingredients.

Prep time: 20 minutes · Cook time: 2.5 hours · Total: about 3 hours · Yield: 8 servings · Difficulty: easy

The one rule that determines the result: the soup doesn’t boil

The difference between a clear golden broth and a cloudy gray liquid isn’t in the ingredients but in the strength of the flame. At a rolling boil two things happen at once: the fat emulsifies into the liquid instead of floating on top, and proteins that coagulate break into tiny particles that stay suspended in the water. Both are irreversible — a soup that has turned cloudy won’t become clear again.

So the three practical rules are: start with cold water, so the proteins are released slowly and rise as foam you can skim off; skim the foam in the first ten to fifteen minutes; and from then on keep a gentle simmer in which one bubble rises every second or two, and no more.

Ingredients (for 8 servings)

For the broth:

• 1.5 kg chicken with bones and skin — a whole cut-up chicken, or a combination of thighs, wings, back and neck
• 2 large onions, halved with the brown skin on (it gives the golden color)
• 3 large carrots, cut into chunks
• 3 stalks celery with the leaves
• 1 medium parsley root
• 1 small kohlrabi or celery root, peeled and quartered
• 4 whole cloves garlic, peeled
• 1 zucchini (optional — adds a gentle sweetness)
• 3 liters cold water
• 1 teaspoon allspice berries, 2 bay leaves, 1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
• Turmeric — 1/2 teaspoon, for color
• Salt — about 2 teaspoons, and only at the end of cooking

To serve:

• A bunch of dill and a bunch of parsley, chopped
• Soup noodles, soup “almonds” (mandlen) or kneidlach (matzo balls) — as you like

Choosing ingredients and substitutes

If you don’t have parsley root, substitute another carrot and add a few parsley stems; the flavor changes slightly. Kohlrabi is the readily available alternative to celery root. You can ask the butcher for backs and necks for broth, or use cut-up bone-in chicken in the same total weight. Matzo balls are known in Israel as kneidlach.

Method

1. Start with cold water. Put the chicken pieces in a large pot and cover with 3 liters of cold water. Hot water makes the proteins coagulate immediately and traps the impurities in the liquid instead of releasing them to the surface.
2. Bring just to a boil and lower the heat. As soon as the water starts to bubble, lower to the smallest flame that still simmers. This is the decisive moment — from here on the soup shouldn’t boil again.
3. Skim the foam. In the first ten to fifteen minutes a grayish foam rises. Remove it with a slotted spoon until the surface stays clean. You can’t “fix” this later.
4. Add the vegetables and spices — onion with its skin, carrot, celery, parsley root, kohlrabi, garlic, allspice berries and bay leaves. Not the salt yet.
5. Cook for 2-2.5 hours in a partly covered pot over low heat. Add boiling water if the level drops below the vegetables.
6. Salt at the end. The soup has reduced during cooking, and the salt doesn’t evaporate with it. Tasting and adjusting happen only in the last 15 minutes.
7. Strain or remove. For a clear soup, strain everything and return only the carrot and pieces of meat; in a homestyle soup the vegetables usually stay in the pot.
8. Remove the fat. If you have time, divide into shallow containers and refrigerate within two hours of cooking, and within an hour on a hot day above 32 degrees Celsius (90°F). Chill for a few hours — the fat solidifies in a layer on the surface and can be lifted off whole with a spoon. This is the only way to remove it almost completely.
9. Serve with chopped dill and parsley, and with the add-in of your choice.

Nutrition facts and calorie estimate

The recommended serving is a bowl of about 350 ml, one-eighth of the pot, with about 60 grams of chicken meat.

Two numbers in this table are really your decision. The first is the meat: a bowl of broth and vegetables alone is about 70 calories, and every 60 grams of thigh meat adds about 120. The second is the fat — removing the layer that solidifies after chilling cuts about 50-60 calories per bowl, which is why it’s worth making the soup a day ahead.

What goes into the bowl alongside the soup often matters more than the soup itself:

Variations and tips

• Extra-clear soup: After straining, chill completely, remove the fat, and reheat gently without stirring. Any stirring brings sediment from the bottom back into the liquid.
• Darker, more aromatic soup: Roast the chicken pieces and onion in the oven at 220 degrees Celsius (428°F) for 25 minutes before putting them in the pot. The method isn’t traditional, but it deepens the color and flavor significantly.
• Pressure cooker: 45 minutes gets a very similar result. The broth comes out slightly less clear, since there’s no way to skim foam during cooking.
• Low-sodium version: Use about half the salt and finish with a squeeze of lemon and fresh dill. Acid sharpens a soup that tastes bland, and usually that’s the real problem when you feel like adding more salt.
• Making ahead and freezing: 3-4 days in the fridge, 3 months frozen. Freeze it without the noodles and matzo balls, which fall apart when thawed.

Summary

Chicken soup is a recipe with almost no hard-to-find ingredients, and the whole difference lies in controlling the heat: cold water at the start, skimming the foam, and a low flame that never boils. Nutritionally it’s a flexible dish — about 70 calories in a bowl of broth and vegetables, about 190 with meat, and a jump of 90-110 more for each matzo ball. For the nutritional values of the broth itself see bone broth, and for more soups — Soups.