Chicken Soup

This is one of my favorite meals from my childhood.  I make it almost exactly how my mother made it - complete with chicken bullion cubes chock full of chemical crap we don't need.  I plan on updating this recipe to fit my current dietary restrictions - that being mostly restriction MSG, food coloring and other chemical crap we don't need.  But you know what?  Those little cubes give this dish the flavor that I remember and sometimes that takes precedence over health.  I promise to work on this recipe this winter and see how chickeny I can get it.

 

 Chop up tons of carrots, onion, celery and sweat it in a pot.  That means lower heat for no color.  This just speeds up the cooking process.  I had a sick baby to feed.  And at least the veggies were organic.

Here's the bad boy I'm talking about.  The more Jewish sounding, the better.  Jews know chicken soup.

 

Add about 12 cups of water and a whole package of fresh dill.  If you haven't tried dill in your chicken soup You Are Missing Out.  Add more water if it boils down too much while cooking. 

This is where I waver from my mother's recipe.  She used chicken breasts and I prefer chicken thighs.  I used boneless, skinless thighs.  Just poach them in the soup whole and remove to chop.  Add back in to the soup.

I used frozen matzo balls which turned out terrible.  They ended up being hard, dense, inedible little buggers.  I must have boiled them too long or too hard (that's what she said).  If anyone knows a good brand of ready made matzo balls... let me know!  My mother used to use egg noodles. I do, too, but I wanted matzo balls this time.  I'm the boss of this soup so it does what I want.


Eamon loved eating the veggies and chicken and Jack ate a few bites.  Serve with crusty bread with LOTS of butter if you're a certain 2 year old I know and slurp it down.  Cures what ails ya.