22 new of 23 responses total.
STeve makes great chicken soup. He uses chicken backs. Onions, celery and carrots go into to water with the chicken along with salt and pepper. When the chicken is falling off the bones (1-3 hrs) he strips removes the bones and adjusts the salt/pepper. From there is varies. Sometimes he adds rice, sometimes noodles, sometimes potatoes, usually barley. Fresh parsley goes in about 15 min before serving. We serve it with big chunks of crustly bread to soak in the broth. Yum. Last night was onion family soup. Yellow onion, scallions, leeks, shallots and garlic sweeted in butter. Add chicken broth and water. Season with salt and pepper. We were out of bay leaves (which also go in the chicken soup above) so he added 1 jalapeno pepper, just enough to add flavor but not heat. Potatoes went in. When it was all tender chopped chives and half and half were added. Again served with crusty bread. It was wonderful.
John, let the chicken cool longer before attempting to separate it from the bones. Personally, I'd want a little salt, but if you've found other soup too salty, maybe you don't need it. (OTOH, the proper amount of salt doesn't taste *salty*; it just brings out the other flavors.)
I'm sure I'd burn myself less if I let the chicken cool before separating the meat. I did try running cold water over it, and that helped a lot. I figure you can always add salt, but it's difficult to remove it. What does the bay leaf add? I've read maybe 50 recipes for chicken soup (okay, well, 12 anyway) and they all seem to call for a bay leaf. I don't understand spices much.
Bay leaf adds an extra layer of flavor. It would only be missed if you are used to having it there. It does need to be added at the beginning.
I did need some salt, too. Heh. You'd think I'd have learned from when I forgot the salt in my chili several weeks ago. A quick taste was fine, but when it came to actually eating my soup, I wanted salt. I think it will be fine once I correct that problem.
It has been my experience that chicken soup tastes best when cooked for a long time over a low heat. This is why I am glad I have a crock pot. I also hate all the fat in it so here is how I make chicken soup. chicken + water + carrots, celery and onions into the crock pot for all day. Then I remove everything solid and put it in a seperate container and I put the pot with the soup part into the fridge over night. In the morning, I remove all the fat from the top. When I get home from work, I microwave it to warm it up. (sometimes I cheat and put a soup cube in.) Ok, sometimes when I am sick and I dont have the energy to make real chicken soup, I boil carrots and some onion in canned chicken broth and it is a pretty close approximation to the real thing.
Aha, that's something I meant to ask about; making chicken soup in a crock pot. I have a crock pot. I don't have much time for cooking; especially on the days when I have John, I want to go home and have dinner. I get home at 6:15 or thereabouts with him. If I spend an hour cooking, then that shoots the time we have to spend together, as he has a bath at about 8 and goes to bed shortly thereafter. So there I go. Thanks! If there's not already a crock pot item in this conference, I think I'll enter one.
It's a year later. I gave up on chicken soup for a long time because it really wasn't that good, but over the weekend I had an urge, and so I made some chicken soup. This time, it came out a *lot* better. The reason: I put celery in it. And carrots, onions, chicken bouillon cubes... I more or less followed a recipe I found somewhere on the Internet, instead of winging it on my own. I used their ingredients, but made up my own proportions. I'm eating some right now. This chicken soup is very much edible. I'd go so far as to say it's good. Other than chili, I'd have to say it's the best thing I've ever made. It's not perfect. I didn't know I should take out the skin, and had chunks of flavorless fatty chicken skin floating around in my soup. (It was easily corrected; I pick them out with a spoon and throw them away.) Also, there are small bones in there. I'll have to try again some time when it's not after midnight, and when I have more attention and more patience. But gee! I made something *good*! I am pretty proud of myself. I'll have to put it on my calendar: John Perry age 42 May, 2003 "Made good chicken soup"
Way to go John. It is a heady feeling isn't it.
Why don't you tell us what you and your son like to eat and then those of us who have a foolproof recipe to suggest could enter it here. Most of us have been where you are and understand. But congratulations on the soup.
My grandmother has a great trick for chicken soup. she puts in the fridge overnight. all the fat rises to the top and she just skims it off.
re resp:11: Heh. I hope none of you have been where I am, exactly. Most people learn to cook as kids! But I do appreciate the nice offer! It's a great idea for another item, and I will enter it if there's not already one out there. My son hasn't tried this batch of chicken soup, and won't; we're going on vacation for a few days. I've frozen what's left, and reserved it for taking to work, but will make it again, definitely. re resp:12: Does your grandmother make the soup, put it in the refrigerator, and then skim the soup, or cook the chicken, put that in the refrigerator, skim it, and then make the soup? Got any tips for separating the chicken from the bone and gunk quickly? It appears to me this is just one of those things that takes time and patience. I am more likely to have patience for something if I expect it to work out. I have little confidence in my cooking ability and so I probably zip through things. This in turn justifies my lack of confidence in my cooking. I can spend hour after hour sitting on the floor with computer parts strewn about, testing and re-testing components that might not be working, because computers make sense to me. People are weird, and I have just affirmed part of my humanity.
She takes a raw chicken and boils it all day on a low heat with carrots, celery and some boullion. Then she takes out the boiled chicken, veggies, etc out of the pot and sets them aside and *then* puts the pot into the fridge. I think she debones the chicken after letting it cool for a while. Since the chicken has been boiling all day, it comes off the bone really easily. (I use a crock pot so it can cook while I am at work). Anyhow, after leaving the broth in the fridge all night she skims the fat off. If she wants clear broth, she runs it through a cheese cloth. If she wants a more substantial soup, she puts the chicken, carrots and celery back in and serves it with macaroni noodles. Her other trick and one I have never been able to really get in the habit of doing was to make huge batches of the stuff. Then, she would freeze some of it and would serve the rest over several days. She *always* seemed to have some on hand. When I was sick as a kid, my mom would sometimes drop me off at her house without a lot of notice and she would have chicken soup ready!
My mother makes vast quantities of soup, and freezes them in pint containers. My dad eats soup for lunch every day. But they have a big deep freezer. I have a modest-sized freezer over my refrigerator. I can still probably apply the same principle on a smaller scale.
I always plan to but seldom get around to it.
I made a variation of chicken soup the other day from a recipe off Epicurious. It's a quickie and uses frozen cooked meatballs, canned broth and fresh veggies. It was quick and tasty. http://www.epicurious.com/cooking/healthy/recipes/recipes/233804 Is it still chicken soup if you use beef and pork meatballs? What would Martha say? ;-)
re #17 Actually, once you add pork to veggies in a soup then it becomes either Brodo di Porco or Ciorba de Porcul
Re 17 I *love* stuff like this because A) it's easy, B) it's nearly homemade and C) it's *good*!
The traditional recipe for penecillin: Chop onion and celery in a 3:2 ratio. Put into a pot Cut disks of carrots and parsnips in a 2:1 ratio. Put also in the pot Put cut up chickens on top of the vegetables Add garlic, both powder and crush Cover with water. Sprinkle with black pepper. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer and cook until the firmest vegetable (either the carrots or the parsnips) are spoon-soft. Raise to medium heat Add wide egg noodles and parsley Cook for 6 - 8 minutes Remove from heat, serve.
Sounds good! I'll have to give it a try sometime, minus the parsnips. How much chicken and vegetables do you use to get a good flavored broth [since I didn't see any chicken broth or boullion [sp?] listed]. And with the water, do you add just enough to cover the solids or maybe 2-3" above? I made some chicken soup recently but it came out too salty so as I take some out of the freezer, I'll try diluting it down.
You don't need boullion. The cut up chicken needs to be more by volume than the veggies, but not by much. Vary the amounts until the taste and colors are right.
Ok; will try again sometime soon.
You have several choices: