Photo courtesy of Bon Appetite, check out their chicken noodle soup recipe.
Last Friday afternoon as I was preparing our meals for shabbat, (and taking note of the cold weather forecast) I decided to whip up a big pot of chicken soup as the main course, and the results were so delicious I just had to share my recipe with you. And I'll admit, I love using this blog as a place for saving recipes, so there's something in it for me too! And yes, it is true that it is pretty hard to mess up chicken soup, but know the right veggies to add really makes a huge difference as far as the end result is concerned.
To make my chicken soup even more special and earn it main course status, I also made some croutons, which everyone loved, and they are certainly many steps above the traditional "soup nuts" that so many Jewish families serve with their soup. Just saying folks, those soup nuts are just about the least healthy thing to get your family used to eating, so do keep that in mind!
Ah yes, the recipe, no problem, just keep on reading.....
Ingredients:
- 1 whole chicken cut into pieces with skin removed (as much as possible for the wings)
- 5 onions, or as many small whole onions as persons to be served, plus an extra two larger onions
- 5 cloves of garlic
- 1 medium sweet potato
- 1 large turnip
- 1 large kohlrabi
- 3 large carrots
- 2 medium zuchini
- 1/2 head of celery
- 1 medium bulb of fennel (optional)
- 1/4-1/3 cup fresh chopped cilantro
- 1/2 teaspoon each (or more) ginger and cumin
- 3/4 teaspoon tumeric
- salt and pepper as desired (kosher chicken tends to be salty so there is no need for me to add salt)
Preparation:
- Fill large pot roughly 3/4 with water, place chicken pieces in water and boil. Remove froth and that yucky stuff if possible as chicken cooks with a soup skimmer. Let chicken cook on low for an hour or so.
- Cut kohlrabi and turnip into small cubes and the whole family will just assume it is potato, so pat yourself on the back for that one!
- Cut carrots and zuchini into slices or strips, and cut celery into strips. Cut sweet potato into small cubes.
- Cut at least 2 onions into pieces and leave the rest whole (some of my famlly like the tradition of getting a whole onion in their soup)
- I left my chicken as pieces, but if you have more folks to serve than pieces of chicken, or prefer soup without chicken bones, so remove chicken from pot and separate meat from bones.
- Add spices to broth and stir.
- Add all vegetables and cook for another 2 hours (at least an hour though) or less if you'll be transferring your pot to a shabbat warming platter where it will sit for a few hours.
Enjoy!