Jewish Mother Chicken Soup
September 17, 2019 | By Jeremy Scheck | 22 Comments
Not only is this matzo ball soup (or chicken noodle soup) delicious, it’s straight-up medicine. When you or a friend is feeling under the weather, you should definitely have this recipe up your sleeve. You’re pretty much just dumping a bunch of stuff in a stock pot and letting it simmer for a couple hours; it’s so easy to make!
Even though there are only 10-20 minutes of active work, you do need to be home 3 hours to monitor the stove, so we recommend picking a day you have a lot of homework or stuff to do at home. Once the soup is made, you can freeze it for at least a month or keep it in the fridge for up to a week. You can eat it as is or incorporate your homemade stock in other recipes.
Jewish Mother Chicken Soup
Dairy-free. Can be made gluten-free by omitting the noodles, using rice instead, or substituting gluten-free noodles.
Ingredients
- 1 whole raw chicken
- 1 pound additional bony chicken parts, such as legs, wings, necks and backs
- 1 large yellow onion
- 1 thumb-sized piece of ginger
- 1 pound carrots
- 1/2 bunch celery
- 1 pound parnips
- 1 sweet potato (optional)
- 1 bunch parsley leaves and stems (optional)
- Kosher salt
- Egg noodles or matzo balls for serving (optional)
- Dill, optional, for serving
Instructions
- Carefully rinse the chicken pieces in cold water and place in a large stock pot. Fill the pot with cold water, enough to cover all the eventual ingredients. Set the pot on medium-high heat, starting to bring it to a boil as you prep the vegetables.
- After prepping a vegetable, add to the pot and move onto the next. Peel and roughly slice the onion. Peel, trim, and halve the carrots. Trim and halve the celery. Peel, trim, and halve the parsnips. Peel and halve the ginger. Peel and chop the sweet potato. Add the parsley.
- Bring to a boil uncovered, then reduce to a simmer, cover, and let simmer 3-6 hours. My Aunt Rachel cracks the lid a little to allow the soup to concentrate, while my mom does not. Don't tell my mom but I am partial to Aunt Rachel's soup.
- Turn off the heat. If you have time to spare, you can let the soup sit on the stove for 30 minutes to an hour with the heat off. Otherwise, continue but be careful; it will be very hot.
- In the sink, prepare a metal colander or large sieve set over a very large bowl or a second, slightly smaller pot. Strain the soup through the colander, into the second bowl/pot. (Try to pour the broth out on its own and keep the chicken in the original pot without plopping it into the colander).
- Use a fork to pick out the chicken meat from the skin and bones. Store in an airtight container. If desired, remove the cooked carrots from the colander and store in another airtight container. Thank the rest of the ingredients for their service and discard.
- Salt generously to taste (it will need a lot), serve immediately as a broth with noodles, chicken, dill, and carrots; if desired. Alternatively, let cool completely before storing. If not freezing, you can store the soup in the original stock pot, covered. When kept in the fridge, your homemade broth will congeal. This is normal, desirable, and an indication of a well-made broth.
- For extra freshness, peel and slice new carrots and celery, simmer 10 minutes in the stock before serving.
Jeremy Scheck spent high school perfecting his signature cupcakes, making quiches and coffee cake by the dozen at a local bakery, and teaching cooking demonstrations at Williams-Sonoma. As a 10th grader in 2016, he began documenting his favorite recipes on a blog called The After School Bakery. In college, Jeremy learned to make 50 gallons of ice cream in the food science lab, how to prune grape vines in the teaching vineyard, the best way to milk a cow in Northern Italy, and why film photography is an art worth saving. As a sophomore in 2020, he traded blog photos for video and became a TikTok culinary sensation. Jeremy has been featured on the Today show, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, BBC Radio, People, and Access Hollywood, among others. Jeremy is a graduate of Cornell University with a double major in Spanish and Italian, and significant coursework in food science. He lives in Brooklyn, NY. Learn more about Jeremy.
Looks delish! Can you share the matzoh ball recipe! I miss my mom’s so much!
Making this tonight for a cozy dinner! Thank you for the idea 🙂
I also wish for the matzoh ball recipe, please.
Hi Jeremy!
How long should I expect this to take to cook in total?
Minimum, 3 hours, but you could let it go longer and it’ll be even better.
Hi, how many people does this recipe serve ?
it can depend on how much you are eating! it makes about 6 generous bowls
Am I able to make this ahead? What step would I put the soup in the fridge to come back to the next day–if possible? Thank you!
You can totally make it ahead, and sometimes it even tastes better made ahead. Just put it in the fridge after straining it.
The first time I had matzo ball soup was at my (now) husband’s jewish grandmother’s house, for hanukkah dinner. I was forever changed, even with the box soup version. As years went on, I always wanted to make a REAL, more elevated version of the soup, and this recipe has EVERYTHING I wanted. The depth of flavor to the bone broth is incredible, and soooooo good!! My husband stopped after the first bite, saying it’s the best matzo ball soup he’s ever had. I can’t THANK YOU enough for sharing this recipe!!! ❤
One of my signature dishes is my chicken soup which has taken decades to perfect. A couple suggestions… if at all possible purchase Kosher chicken ( capon is best) and then you need NO salt added. The most important ingredient are the bones and some butchers will sell “chicken bones”. All the rich flavor comes from the bones. Just wondering …. you never mentioned skimming the fat off of the top. That fat ( schmaltz) is incredible in the matzah balls!
Okay.. this was awesome!! I threw in there whatever I had on hand which included carrots, sweet potato, onion, shallots, garlic, parsley, celery, and peppercorns. Cooked in for about 4 hours, took out the chicken after 1.5 hrs and it was FALLING off the bone. Amazing. I let it cool and put reasonable portions in my stasher bags to freeze. So far I’ve made an amazing spicy Thai chicken noodle soup with the chicken and the broth as well as an amazing chicken pot pie with what I had left of the chicken and the broth. Both were so flavorful and amazing. Really impressed myself with this. Still plenty of broth left for any other cooking adventures I take! Highly recommend if you have the time and are sitting around at home.
I use almost the same ingredients for my chicken soup, no ginger or potato.
I put dill into the soup with the fresh parsley.
When the soup is done I take out all of the chicken, leave in the vegetables and purée them with my immersion blender!
I serve this with Matzo Balls (always add a few Tbspns of seltzer or Perrier, which makes them nice and light)
So easy and delicious! I make this once a month and get more comfortable with the recipe and remixing with it every time!
About what size full chicken do you use?
This has become my go-to chicken soup recipe! I’ve made it a number of times, most recently with matzo balls for Passover! So delicious and comforting!
We made this for Passover this year. It was a huge hit! We used one whole chicken and a package of chicken legs too. We didn’t have parsnips, so left those out. Had lots of leftover chicken that we used to top salads over the next several days. Already looking forward to making it again next year.
glad you liked it! parsnips are my favorite part, so must try next time 🙂
Just made this for my mum who is undergoing chemo and the ginger was an excellent addition to help with her nausea and digestive issues. Such a straightforward recipe too! Thank you.
Made this soup and it was perfect!! I was craving classic chicken soup and this was it. I also used the trick to add fresh vegetables when reheating and it worked so well!
This soup is incredible. It’s a labor of love but it’s worth every minute of it.
My mother used to skim the chicken fat off. I’ve read that
chicken fat is no good for a person’s health. The chicken bone broth is very good for you. What say you?