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My mother's technique (which she learned from her German mother and grandmother): Fry the chicken pieces you're going to use for the soup (mostly dark meat from a good quality bird) in some oil (or butter) along with some garlic and sea salt. When they're nice and browned, pour equal parts water and chicken stock (homemade, or from a carton if you're in a hurry) over the sizzling chicken. Add a whole cut up onion, and more garlic. Simmer until the chicken is almost cooked completely, then add whatever vegetables you like and cook to them to desired tenderness you prefer. My Mom used carrots, celery and occasionally green beens. At this point you can either de-bone the chicken and add it back to the soup, or leave the pieces whole. In the meantime, cook egg noodles separately. When noodles are done, add to the soup pot. And here's the big secret ingredient----add the chicken feet to the simmering soup (but take them out before serving)--my Mom swore by it. She would also make homemade egg noodles (German style) when she was in a particularly creative mood---pure heaven!
Love homemade chicken soup! I have only slightly modified my Mom's technique above. She did not skim the fat off the top when it cooled---and I do.
Thanks for all the tips everyone! If I want to make the soup extra thick, should I just add in flour?
Use egg noodles--they tend to thicken the soup. Or, you can add a little bit of corn starch--but be careful not to add too much. You don't want it to gum up.
Has anyone tried Harvestland chicken? I just saw it at the store today and it's pretty cheap and doesn't have any antiobiotics or steroids added to it.
You can simmer them all day and you won't overcook the chicken bones. I simmer for several hours to render the collagen from the skin (yes - make sure you toss-in plenty of the skin) and connective tissue - this won't happen in an hour.
There is a world of difference between a collagen-rich stock and a standard clear stock - in texture and flavor .
Realized the difference here:
If you are going to strain out ALL of the meat and bones and vegetables and throw them away, cook away. Cook all day. Makes awesome stock.
If however, you are wanting to use the meat in the soup, say from thighs, then you want to only cook for an hour, otherwise, in my experience, the flavor cooks out of the meat. The stock is not quite as full, but the soup takes less time.
My chicken soup was always sort of blah until I tried the Barefoot Contessa's recipe. It is the best chicken soup I have ever had. I use only one whole chicken and leave out the dill, but everything else stays the same. It has lots of flavor and is absolutely delicious.
It's all about the details. For a great soup/stew you have to make a great stock...
Keep the wing tips, skin, and bones whenever you roast a chicken or buy a rotisserie chicken. Freeze them until you have two or three chickens worth of "bits."
Toss a chopped large yellow onion, three chopped celery ribs, three chopped carrots, three chopped garlic cloves, two bay leaves, half a teaspoon of thyme, and half a teaspoon of sage in a stock pot with enough water to cover everything plus an inch over.
Boil for four hours and strain.
Toss whatever stays in the strainer - those bits and veggies gave-up their flavor and willingly stay behind.
Chill the stock and remove the top layer of fat after chilling. Don't worry that the rest of the stock has turned to jelly - that means you made some great stock.
Now you have a beautiful stock for any type of chicken soup/stew you can imagine. Notice we didn't add salt - you will determine the amount of salt needed when you use this stock for your soup/stew.
And you can even use breast meat when you make your soup/stew 'cause you already used the most flavorful bits for your stock.
Okay, a bit of clarification. Step 2 involves throwing the chicken bits in the pot as well. Step 3 I say "boil" when I actually mean simmer - a full rolling boil for four hours results in a dry pot .
I keep reading the title of this thread as "How to Make Better CHILDREN Soup"! Yikes!
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