Get Premium access to all the latest content online
Subscribe and view full print editions online... Subscribe
Jewish chicken soup
Serves 6 Starters and mains
Ingredients
- 1 large chicken of the best quality and ethical standing you can afford
- 2 medium onions, halved
- 2 large carrots, left whole
- 1 leek, trimmed but left whole handful of celery leaves
- 3 bay leaves
- few thyme sprigs
- 2-3 rosemary sprigs
- 500g fresh chicken stock (homemade or from the chiller cabinet
- 1tsp black peppercorns
- 1⁄2tsp salt
To serve (per person)
- 30g Jewish noodles or vermicelli
- 2 matzo balls
- 3 kreplach
- dill sprigs
Matzo balls (makes 16)
- 100g matzo meal
- 2 medium eggs, whisked
- 50g schmaltz (chicken fat), ghee or clarified butter
- 100ml chicken soup or extra chicken stock
- 1⁄2tsp baking powder
- 1⁄4tsp white pepper
- 1tsp salt
Salt beef kreplach (makes 48 dumplings)
- 300g ‘00’ grade pasta flour
- 3 medium eggs
- 1tbsp beef dripping or schmaltz (chicken fat)
- 500g leftover salt beef (or raw minced beef chuck and alittle beef fat)
- 1 onion cooked in the chicken soup, or 1 onion cooked slowly for 15 minutes in oil or beef dripping, mixed togetherwith the salt beef
- 1 x 9cm cutter
Method
Place the chicken in the largest pot you have. You need around 3cm of space around the edges of the chicken and around 3cm of depth above it so it can be totally immersed in liquid. Lay the vegetables and herbs around the chicken, then pour over the stock. Top up with water if necessary so the chicken is totally covered. Add the peppercorns and salt. Cover and poach gently on a low simmer for 11⁄2 hours.
When cooked, very carefully remove the chicken and set it aside. Remove the carrots and onion halves, set them aside to cool with the chicken for 15 minutes, then chop them up. It works well with the chicken torn into bite-size pieces, the onions finely chopped and the carrots roughly chopped. You can use the rest of the vegetables, though classically the soup is only served with carrots. Put the meat on one side while you make the broth.
Strain the vegetables, herbs and peppercorns from the stock. Clean, rinse and dry the pot and pour the stock back into it. Bring to the boil. Reduce it for around 15 minutes, or until the broth has a really intense chicken flavour. You should end up with around 3 litres of flavoursome broth. Keep reducing it until the flavour is right. Season with salt and pepper, return the chicken meat, carrots and onions to the pan and bring back to the boil.
Meanwhile, poach the noodles and/or the matzo balls and kreplach. Add these to your soup bowls, garnish with some dill and ladle the hot chicken broth, carrots and onions over the top.
Matzo balls:
Put the matzo meal in a bowl with the eggs, schmaltz, chicken stock, baking powder, white pepper and salt. Mix together well until you have a wet dough and then leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Put a large saucepan of salted water on to boil and shape the dough into 16 balls. When the water boils, poach the balls for around 5 minutes until they rise to the surface, then add them to the soup along with the noodles and chicken.
Salt beef kreplach:
In a table-top mixer with a dough hook or in a food processor, blitz together the flour, eggs and fat. The dough should come together and look like small pebbles of pastry. Turn it out of the bowl and knead for around 2-3 minutes until it is firm and shiny. Cover and chill for 20 minutes.
Cut the dough into 4, take one quarter and cover the rest with a warm damp towel. Roll out the first quarter. You shouldn’t need much (or any) flour and sometimes it’s better to roll with semolina to prevent the kreplach becoming sticky when you poach them. Use a 9cm cutter to cut rounds
of dough as if you were making ravioli. Place a large tsp of the salt beef and onion filling into the centre of each disc of dough. Brush the edges with water or egg and fold the outside rim to close like half-moons. Place the made dumplings onto a tray lined with greaseproof paper and scattered with a little semolina flour if possible. Continue with the rest of the dough.
Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil and cook the kreplach for 4 minutes. Drain and add to the soup.
Advertisement