A quintessential Jewish food

There is something very personal and emotional about chicken soup. A good pot of soup tells a story. It is the story of a family history. A favorite recipe scribbled on an old index card, worn and stained with years of repeated cooking sessions. Soup is the story of a season, a showpiece, and the soul of the cook.

Hours tending to a pot of soup is the outward symbol of how much the cook cares about you. You can just tell when someone fussed over the pot. True love can be expressed through a pot of chicken soup.

For Passover, chicken soup is almost essential. The soup bridges the fish course or appetizers to a hot entrée. After hours of reading the Haggadah, you are rewarded with a delicious bowl of love–a delight to the soul. Parents can’t wait to introduce kids to the soup course at Passover. I believe it is because the soup reminds you of your own Sederim and the delicious food memory of soup.

Preparing chicken soup for any occasion fills the house with an intoxicating aura of comfort, coziness, and home. From the moment you enter, you are greeted with the aroma, which wraps you like a favorite blanket, or a hug from a loved one. When the soup finally comes to the table, the steam, perfumed with herbs, is intoxicating. This carefully tended bowl of matzah ball soup is a full-body experience, and the stuff of legends and history.

This is the soup prescribed by every Jewish mother as an all-purpose feel-better soup. Even philosopher-physician Maimonides wrote extensively about chicken soup as a panacea for all ailments.

It is no wonder homemade chicken soup garners so much attention. The broth is rich with collagen and gelatin. The fat is the very essence of chicken and when used to make matzah balls, the savory dumplings are divine, rich, and simply delicious. Those dumplings are the stuff of memories, and isn’t that what the holidays are all about?

Before convenience foods bombarded shoppers at grocery stores, everyone made their own soup. Hours were spent simmering bones, vegetables, herbs, and secret family ingredients. The precious and delicious fat was saved to drizzle over potatoes or bread, or used to make matzah balls. Anyone being served a bowl of homemade soup and matzah balls made with schmaltz is a lucky person indeed. Rich and versatile chicken soup does not come from shortcut ingredients like canned or boxed broth, from bouillon, or powder.

No, great soup starts with chicken bones. They have collagen, gelatin, and flavor. Boiling a chicken in water will yield chicken-flavored water and over-cooked chicken. Instead, prepare chicken stock like the pros do, by simmering bones to make stock or bone broth. Save your chicken, and chicken pieces, for entrees–and use the bones for stock.

Chicken stock is a versatile blank canvas. You can prepare soups, stews, rich purees, and pan sauces. Having stock at hand is to have countless delicious meals at your fingertips.

For Passover this year, I am serving chicken soup, and then using my stock to make rich and hearty coq au vin, vegetable soup, braised short ribs, and more.

Go ahead, make your mother proud–make real chicken soup.

Rich chicken stock

Yields: 4 quarts rich stock

4 pounds of chicken bones (wings, carcasses, necks, etc…)
12 cups of water
1 large Spanish onion, chopped
3 large carrots, chopped
3 celery ribs, chopped
3 sprigs of fresh thyme
5 parsley sprigs
1 bay leaf
1 whole clove
1 teaspoon of whole black peppercorns

Optional: several chopped parsnips, fresh ginger, whole garlic cloves, sliced leeks, parsley root, celery root

1. Simmer bones, water, onion, carrots, celery, thyme, parsley, bay leaf, clove, and peppercorns in a large stock pot. Only fill with water to the level of the bones and vegetables (this will guarantee a rich, not watery stock). (Do not add salt at this point. The stock will reduce as part of the natural simmering process and salting it can make it overly salty.)

2. Skim off any scum that floats to the top. The scum will make your soup cloudy and bitter. Continue simmering for 4 hours. Turn off the heat and allow the chicken stock to steep for another hour.

3. Strain out the bones and vegetables and discard. Cool the stock in your stock pot in a sink filled with cold water and ice, completely, before storing covered in the refrigerator or freezer. Ladle off the fat from the top of the stock before using, but save the fat for matzah balls!

Stock may be stored–covered, in the freezer for up to three months or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

Schmaltz

This is the good stuff. Schmaltz adds tons of flavor–I mean tons! Schmaltz makes matzah balls taste ethereal and crispy potatoes heavenly. Mixed with roasted garlic and tossed with veggies, schmaltz is a complex, flavorful, restaurant-worthy dish.

I save up pieces of fat from chickens and store it in bags in my freezer until I have a cup or two. During Passover, I save the fat from chicken stock and add pieces of chicken skin, garlic, and a sliced onion.

1 cup or more chicken fat

1 cup chicken skin

1 medium Spanish onion, sliced

2 whole cloves garlic

1. Simmer chicken fat, skin, onion, and garlic with barely enough water to cover the mixture until all the water has cooked out and the skin is brown, floating, and starting to crisp up.

2. Pour fat through a strainer. Save onions and crispy skin for soup garnishes. Use rendered schmaltz for matzah balls, sauteing veggies, potatoes, and more! Unused schmaltz can be frozen for up to 6 months.

Matzah balls

Yields: 12

For tons of extra flavor, I use chicken stock and schmaltz in my matzah ball mix. No need for whipping whites separately or adding seltzer to the mix. Using light hands and not compressing the matzah meal mix ensures delicate floating orbs of joy.

Chicken fat makes everything flavorful and delicious. Skip the packaged mix and make your own matzah balls. Make your mother proud and use schmaltz!

4 large eggs, whisked

¼ cup cold chicken stock or water

¼ cup melted and cooled schmaltz or extra virgin olive oil

1 cup matzah meal

½ teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

½ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper

Optional: 1 tablespoon minced parsley, 1 tablespoon minced dill, pinch of nutmeg

2-3 quarts of chicken stock

1. Stir eggs, chicken stock or water, schmaltz, matzah meal, baking powder, salt, and pepper together to form a firm batter.

2. Cover and allow to rest while matzah mix hydrates in the fridge for 30 minutes.

3. Bring stock to a simmer in a large soup pot with a tight-fitting lid.

4. Dampen your hands under cold water and scoop a tablespoon of matzah mix. Very gently roll the mixture to form a smooth ball. I like matzah balls that float, and therefore, I do not compress the mixture. The tighter you compress the mixture, the heavier the dumpling.

5. Drop matzah balls into simmering stock. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

6. For do-ahead matzah balls, scoop out matzah balls with a slotted spoon and store covered, in the fridge or freezer. Add to simmering broth before serving.

From stock to soup

1 pound white or dark chicken meat, shredded
½ cup thinly sliced celery
½ cup thinly sliced peeled celery root
½ cup thinly sliced carrots
½ cup thinly sliced parsnips
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill

Salt and pepper to taste

1. Bring chicken stock to a simmer in a large saucepan or stockpot. Add chicken, celery, celery root, carrots, parsnips, parsley, dill, salt, and pepper. Simmer until vegetables are tender.

2. Adjust seasoning to taste.

Laura Frankel is a noted kosher chef, a cookbook author, and Culinary Director for a media company. Currently, she serves as Director of Catering at Circle of Life catering at North Suburban Synagogue Beth El.