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Jewish Chicken Soup with Matzo balls…The Real Jewish Penicillin

 This recipe is what my childhood memories are made of. It is what I need to turn to when I am sick or aching from a bad day. The rich golden broth makes my sniffles melt away and warms my soul. Full of veggies, tender chicken and moist, melt away matzo balls, this Jewish Chicken Soup is the Real Jewish Penicillin…the answer to all of live’s hard times.

Matzoball Chicken Soup from the Girl and the Kitchen


This post is a recreation of the very first blog post I ever wrote.  However, it was so near and dear to my heart that I decided I needed to make it better.  

Year after year, the one request I get from my readers and clients alike is to teach them the secret to a real Jewish chicken soup.  There are very few rules to a good chicken soup, mine starts with two ingredients, heart and soul.

Call it cliche.  Call it cheesy.  But a good chicken soup is made with love.  My mother taught me that…”Make it with love Mila…and it will always be right.”  How right she was.

This Chicken Soup was the ONLY food I would eat as a kid. We had to have it in the house all the time or else I went hungry.

I can still recall that wonderful taste.  The best part was when my mother used to hand feed me with it. She would take a bite size piece of bread with some meat on it from the soup and put it in my mouth followed by a spoonful of broth. That taste has been forever imprinted in my mind.

When I am sick, this is my calling.  All diets are off when I’m sick, I slurp up every golden circle of chicken fat and gobble up every last piece of chicken skin, until my belly smiles with glee.

When I am sick, I think back to those days that my mom hand fed me this soup (truth be told she did so until I was 16).  Her soup was always so simple, some chicken with cooked vermecelli noodles or rice and a few of the parsley roots and carrots from the soup.  When we emigrated to America she sometimes made it with matzoballs. That was it. Nothing special, just good.  Always, lifting my spirits and lowering my fever.

Today, my mother isn’t around anymore to make me a batch of chicken soup, but every time I make my own it still soothes my soul and makes me feel like she is in the kitchen with me.

No words can explain how important this soup is to me.  It brings me back to my childhood.  A time of utter simplicity and minimal worries.  A time that all aches and pains were put to ease by my mother’s gentle touch and warm embrace.

My poor mother was always worried that her scrawny daughter needed nourishment.  And almost every week she made this chicken soup for me.  With every slurp I felt the amount of love that she put in her soup.  She always told me, “Cook only when you want to and no matter what you add, a piece of you must always be in it. Your food will always taste great.”

Her chicken soup was always hers. It tasted different than when my babushka made it. Perhaps that was why it made me feel better. My mom’s chicken soup can never be duplicated because she sadly is not around to make it, but there are certainly ways to come close and that’s the best I can do.  For now, that’s enough.

Matzoball Chicken Soup from the Girl and the Kitchen

A few weeks ago, I was making this soup for my freezer stash and my babushka was over.  Babushka is 89 years old and still remembers every detail of her life.  It hurts her too much to recollect, as it does me, so instead we always talk about food and the obvious family gossip.

Babushka tasted this soup and said, “Milachka, may your hands never hurt,” a Russian proverb that means more in Russian than it does in English and somehow the translation is lost in English…nonetheless, Babushka slurped the golden broth up and broke up her matzoball and finally said, “I have not had a chicken soup this good since back home.”  Back home meaning the motherland, Moldova.

I was proud.  And I knew my mom was proud too.  Smiling down at me, pleased that I use her recipe to soothe my munchkins’ sniffles and tummy aches.  Hopefully, my embraces are just as warm and my soup is just as healing.

And so… I pass my mom’s simple recipe onto you.

This soup is ALWAYS a standard in my freezer as well as on my holiday tables.

(Psst, this is precisely the reason that it is included in my Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur Dinner Menu Plan)

Please note this chicken soup is not that goopy canned condensed gross stuff. No this is the stuff that real Jewish grandmothers have passed down for generations.

This is liquid gold. It is a golden broth, filled with minimal toppings but plenty of flavors. Mostly popular with the Ashkenazi Jews, this is the stuff that has been labeled the Jewish Penicillin. The cure all to heartbreaks and tummy-aches, fevers and chest colds or just the run of the mill bad day.

Matzoball Chicken Soup from the Girl and the Kitchen

Yes there are scientific facts that chicken soup heals.  The fat in chicken actually loosens and thins out the mucus in the nose and lungs.  So breath in the fat happy people!

The Technique

The WaterStart with cold water, ALWAYS. Period. The end.
The Salt: Add only Kosher Salt to the water, it clarifies the stock and makes it less cloudy. Sea salt is also acceptable.  Don’t use black volcanic salt as I did once… your gorgeous golden broth will turn gray 🙂

The Chicken: If there was one thing that my mother taught me about cooking it was to use the best products you can. This recipe is no different. Try and get an Amish or Free Range chicken. They even look different, you will notice they have a more yellow tint to them, due to the difference in their diet. I did a taste test of 4 different chickens and the winner was the free range local farm chicken, followed by the Amish 🙂 Get a good chicken…it is chicken soup after all. Important to mention… you can also do chicken pieces instead of an entire chicken. Truly it’s up to you.  Just make sure you do dark meat and white meat or only dark meat.  BUT not only white meat, the flavor AND much needed fat just won’t be there.

The Ratio:  The water to meat ratio is important.  Otherwise you just end up with a watery broth.  Yuck.  Pour in enough water to cover the chicken. And that’s it.  No more.  This is why I try and get the best AND biggest chicken possible.

*I’m sure you noticed there is no chicken base in this soup. If you let the soup cook for awhile, you will never need any base in this soup. My mom never used it in this soup and neither will I.*

You want a nice big stock pot. Mine is a 7.5 qt.

Matzoball Chicken Soup from the Girl and the Kitchen

Wash out your chicken and place it in the stockpot and cover it completely with COLD water.  And let it simmer.

Matzoball Chicken Soup from the Girl and the Kitchen

You are going to notice the scum start to come up.  It’s really just coagulated blood.  I let it simmer away for about 25 more minutes. This was my babushka’s and mom’s genius.  They skimmed those broths like they had OCD.  There was never one teeny itty bitty bit of scum in my soup.  Clear as day!

Matzoball Chicken Soup from the Girl and the Kitchen

In the meantime, prep your gorgeous carrots.  I like to get the ones with the greenery still attached to them.  It somehow makes everything seem better in life.

Matzoball Chicken Soup from the Girl and the Kitchen

Same with your parsley root.

What’s that?  You never used a parsley root?  Well it’s magnificent!  It is sweet and gloriously parsley like!  Plus you get to use the actual leaves attached to the parsley root as…PARSLEY!  Brilliant huh?

Don’t forget to clean two onions as well!

Matzoball Chicken Soup from the Girl and the Kitchen

And then I use an unorthodox approach.  I dump the broth out into a large colander so that we can start fresh with a new broth.  This is how the Asians make their broths so nice and clear. Make sure to rinse the chicken and the pot of all the scum. However if you want to do it old school and continue skimming that is good too! I have done it both ways and really did not see a difference in outcome!

Matzoball Chicken Soup from the Girl and the Kitchen

And now we place all the veggies, parsley, dill, chicken, salt and pepper into the pot.  Cover it again with cold water and let it simmer on medium-low for about 2 hours.

Matzoball Chicken Soup from the Girl and the Kitchen

In the meantime let’s make our matzoballs.

Combine all the ingredients for your matzoballs in a large bowl.  I like to add dill to mine to increase the flavor and the color.

Matzoball Chicken Soup from the Girl and the Kitchen

Mix it all up with a spoon until it’s nice smooth.  Place this mixture into the fridge for 20 minutes.  And get a pot of water with salt on the stove.  Bring up to boil.

Matzoball Chicken Soup from the Girl and the Kitchen

I like to use a little ice cream scooper to scoop them into my hand and then roll the balls out.

Matzoball Chicken Soup from the Girl and the Kitchen

Then place them on a plate.

Matzoball Chicken Soup from the Girl and the Kitchen

Now for me, the secret to fluffy matzoballs also has a lot to do with how long you cook them.  I have made HUNDREDS of matzoballs at all the different catering places I worked at and I learned quite a few tips.

If you want a dense and heavy matzoball, cook it for 25 minutes.  If you are going for airy and light floaters, you are going to want to boil them for 35-40 minutes.

Drop them into the boiling pot of water carefully, one by one.

Matzoball Chicken Soup from the Girl and the Kitchen

Turn it down to a simmer.  Cover it.  And let them cook for 35-40 minutes. Once they are finished, you can serve them immediately with the soup or you can cool them completely then place them in another container in the refrigerator.

Matzoball Chicken Soup from the Girl and the Kitchen

Perfect and soft matzoballs.

Matzoball Chicken Soup from the Girl and the Kitchen

Now back to our chicken soup.  Taste it.  Make sure it’s as sweet as you want it and  add salt if needed.

There we go…golden, beautiful and delicious.

Tip: If you want to skim the fat off some, the easiest way is to place it in the fridge and let the fat solidify over night.  Then you can go ahead and just remove the fat solids.  Which is essentially shmaltz that you can reserve for the next time you make matzoballs.

I like to leave the fat in.

Matzoball Chicken Soup from the Girl and the Kitchen

Serve the soup with a matzoball or two, some of the veggies, some meat on the side and a nice sprinkling of dill if you are into that sort of thing.

Matzoball Chicken Soup from the Girl and the Kitchen

***A hint, I always make a little more and freeze the rest, this way I always have chicken soup in the house.***

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Matzoball Chicken Soup from the Girl and the Kitchen

Chicken Soup for My Soul…The Real Jewish Penicillin


  • Author: Mila Furman

Description

Full of veggies, tender chicken and melt away matzo balls this Jewish Chicken Soup is the Real Jewish Penicillin, perfect for sniffles and heartbreaks.


Ingredients

Scale

For the Soup

  • 1 whole Amish chicken or cut up chicken pieces (with skin-on)
  • 6 or 7 medium carrots (peeled and cut in half)
  • 2 large onions (peeled and cut in half)
  • 1 bunch dill (washed)
  • 1 bunch parsley (washed)
  • 34 parsley roots (peeled and cut in half if large)
  • 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
  • Kosher Salt

For the matzoballs

  • 1 cup matzomeal
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/3 tsp pepper
  • 3 tbsp melted shmaltz or vegetable oil (chicken fat)
  • 1 tsp minced fresh dill

Instructions

  1. Wash out your chicken and place it in the stockpot and cover it completely with COLD water. And let it simmer.
  2. You are going to notice the scum start to come up. It’s really just coagulated blood. I let it simmer away for about 25 more minutes.
  3. In the meantime, prep your gorgeous carrots. I like to get the ones with the greenery still attached to them. It somehow makes everything seem better in life.
  4. Same with your parsley root. What’s that? You never used a parsley root? Well it’s magnificent! It is sweet and gloriously parsley like! Plus you get to use the actual leaves attached to the parsley root as…PARSLEY! Brilliant huh?
  5. Don’t forget to clean two onions as well!
  6. And then I use an unorthodox approach. I dump the broth out into a large colander so that we can start fresh with a new broth. This is how Asian broths are so nice and clear. However if you want to do it old school and continue skimming that is good too!
  7. Make sure to rinse the chicken and the pot of all the scum.
  8. And now we place all the veggies, parsley, dill, chicken, salt and pepper into the pot. Cover it again with cold water and let it simmer on medium-low for about 2 hours.
  9. In the meantime let’s make our matzoballs.
  10. Combine all the ingredients for your matzoballs in a large bowl. I like to add dill to mine to increase the flavor and the color.
  11. Mix it all up with a spoon until it’s nice smooth. Place this mixture into the fridge for 20 minutes. And get a pot of water with salt on the stove. Bring up to boil.
  12. I like to use a little ice cream scooper to scoop them into my hand and then roll the balls out.
  13. Then place them on a plate.
  14. Now for me, the secret to fluffy matzoballs also has a lot to do with how long you cook them. If you want a dense and heavy matzoball, cook it for 25 minutes. If you are going for airy and light floaters, you are going to want to boil them for 35-40 minutes.
  15. Drop them into the simmering pot of water carefully, one by one.
  16. Turn it down to a simmer. Cover it. And let them cook for 35-40 minutes. Once they are finished, you can serve them immediately with the soup or you can cool them completely then place them in another container in the refrigerator.
  17. Now back to our chicken soup. Taste it. Make sure it’s as sweet as you want it and add salt if needed.
  18. There we go…golden. Beautiful and delicious. If you want to skim the fat off some, the easiest way is to place it in the fridge and let the fat solidify over night. Then you can go ahead and just remove the fat solids. I like to leave the fat in.
  19. Serve the soup with a matzoball or two, some of the veggies, some meat on the side and a nice sprinkling of dill

Notes

  1. Obviously freezing the chicken soup is super easy…but did you know you can freeze the matzo balls too?! Yup you sure can!  Just roll them out and lay them out on parchment paper and freeze!!! Then you can put them in a ziplock bag so they do not take up that much room in your freezer.  Once you ready to cook them, just cook them up like you would ordinarily!  They are ready for you once they are light and fluffy and float to the top!
  • Category: Soup
  • Cuisine: Ashkenazi, Eastern European, Jewish

**Originally published October 13th 2013***

The classic Jewish chicken soup with lighter than air matzoballs.

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172 Comments

  1. Thanks so much for sharing this at Savoring Saturdays, Mila! It was the most popular post! I hope you’ll come back and share with us again this weekend!

      1. This looked amazing so I bought all the ingredients, now it’s in the pot and I’m not sure how to cook it. Do you cover it when you simmer it in the beginning? And do you cover it the whole time? And how long is the initial first simmer? Thanks

        1. I’m a bit confused. You say you pour it into a colander, then start with fresh cold water? You throw away the first broth? Yikes!!

          1. Yup. It’s an Asian method! You throw away the first boil and end up with a super clear broth 🙂

          2. My grandma did the same thing and she is from Poland. This recipe is very similar to hers, love it!

          3. Bs”d
            When you throw out the 1st broth, you also throw out the dissolved protein from the chicken. I get a clear broth by pouring the broth trough a very fine sieve, it catches the foam and congealed blood. You can also probably use cheese cloth. I’m curious why you don’t use celery?

          4. There’s no reason for the lack of celery 😉 my mom just never used it 🙂 so neither do i

    1. I’ve been making chicken soup for 36 years and after following your recipe, now I know what I was doing wrong! I made your soup EXACTLY as you instructed and I think I’ve just made the best chicken soup of my life thanks to you. Your family’s chicken soup recipe is a real winner. You’ve made me fall in love with chicken soup all over again. I’m sticking to your method from now on. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. ❤

      1. AWWW THIS!! This comment is why I love my job so much!!! Thank you from the bottom of MY heart for allowing me to come into your family.

    2. Hi Mila! I read in your reply to someone else’s comment that as another cooking option, you have roasted the chicken and veggies before cooking them in water, which will then become broth. This eliminates the need to initially simmer the chicken, resulting in a broth containing scum. When you do make the soup this way, how long do you roast the chicken and veggies and then how long do you cook everything together in the broth? Thanks!

      1. I mean I typically do not do that. But I would say roast for 45-60 minutes and then if you want to get the flavor into the broth you would end up cooking for just as long. Roasting them will add flavor but it will not take away from the time that it takes to let that flavor infuse the soup.

  2. That Broth looks delicious Mila. I’ve actually never has Matzoball Chicken soup, but now I could REALLY have a big bowl of it! I’ve got too many of your recipes on my to-cook list Mila! 🙂

    1. Thank you Dini! And You should SEE my blog MUST cook list…Every time I remove something that I have already cooked… I add on 3 more… It’s absurd.

    1. Thank you Rina!!! It’s quite easy as you can tell! Just requires some time to actually cook…does not require much energy from THE cook 🙂 Thanks for coming by.

    1. Awwww thank you for reading Lorraine! I’m a huge fan of your blog and stories so you coming over means a lot 🙂 have a wonderful day!

  3. The is the best post I’ve read in a long time. You’ve written from your soul to mine and I love it. I also love this soup.

    Your babushka was right, maybe your hands never hurt so you will always be able to cook like this.

    1. Maureen, your comments made me cry. This is the reason I look forward to writing. To be able to touch people like this makes me grateful to be Able to write my heart out on paper

    2. Wonderful recipe. Except for dill. I would never put dill in chicken soup. Far too strong a flavour. And the wrong flavour. My grandmother— who made the best chicken soup — never used dill, and nor do I.

      1. Vivien, all the grandmothers in my family always used dill because we love it. I find as a professional chef…dill is one of those herbs you either love or hate…and I love it as does my whole family.

  4. I just want to make sure I’m understanding this correctly, the water you use to cook the chicken in the first step, you discard before putting in the veggies and herbs?

  5. I read every single word. You actually brought a tear to my eye. I love this Mila. I can’t tell you how much I love this. A beautiful story, memories AND perfect instructions for the recipe. I learnt SO MUCH! I especially love the Asian broth technique 🙂 Though I have to ask – do you really dump the broth from the 1st cook?? Or save it for another purpose? This looks so incredible – gotta do some major sharing!!!

    1. Nagi…thank you. These are the kind of posts that let my nostalgic and writing side out 🙂 They are my favorite because they come from the warmest and gooiest place in my heart 🙂 Yes I do actually pour off that fist boil of the soup. Honestly there is so much scum and other dirty crud that it’s not worth it for me to save it. My mom and babushka were religious in skimming off every last bit but sadly I am just not as patient as they are 🙂 So when I learned about this Asian technique and it was confirmed by my father in law that he does the same thing…I was sold 🙂

      1. Hi! Im not Jewish but my partner is so my chicken soup always comes under heavy scrutiny. Luckily it always passes muster. We live in Asia. I do the same as you except I dont pre~boil. Rather i roast the chicken and the veg. This seals and cooks the proteins so you always end up with a terrifically clear golden soup. I dont want to tread on your dear mothers toes but you must try this. If its better your mother can be proud you managed to improve on her perfection. If not she can tell you told you so. Right. Lol try u might like.

  6. Wasn’t food always better when mom served it to you? Mom’s always made things better. Love this as it looks like “proper” Jewish penicillin Mila.
    Now are the parsley root vegetables you mentioned parsnips? I have never seen parsley root vegetables. Also, I can’t imagine throwing away that initial simmered chicken broth, but will trust you and check it out per your instructions.
    I’ve never made matzo balls!
    Thanks for reminding me of my mom, not that she was Jewish (hello – O’Leary!) but for the love she would put into the meals for all of us, too.

    1. Awww Kevin we don’t have to be Jewish to know how much our moms love us 🙂
      So parsley roots look almost identical to parsnips…so much so that when my mom first started shopping in America she used to buy those instead because she was confused that those were indeed parsley roots…which led my babushka on a rant on how crappy America’s parsley roots were 🙂 One day she found the real stuff at our local farmers market and knew that she had found gold 🙂 The way you KNOW is by the smell. Parsley roots smell like…parsely. But sweeter and more fragrant. Roasted parsley roots are divine! Trust me once you smell them you will KNOW the difference. Apparently there are also cilantro roots that are just as fabulous…I have yet to find them but I am aching to start my own garden just so that I could have them 🙂 You and Nagi are both so concerned with that first boil 🙂 trust me mostly what you get is the scum and stuff so its not worth it to save. And I promise if you cook the soup long enough with the right veggies you will get the most intensly flavored broth my dear 🙂 Make the matzo balls make the soup…and heal your soul 🙂

  7. #6 ….you throw away all the goodness from the first simmer??? For shame…I use everything and put the soup thru’ a strainer after 3-4 hours…It’s better than my Bubby’s was!!!!

    1. Hi Ella! You know I have tried it both ways…and I personally did not see a huge difference. But I am always willing to try and see other techniques 🙂

      1. Thank you….there is no right or wrong way….enjoy Passover and your chicken soup and knaidlech!!!!!!!!

  8. Another message coming in from Australia – I see that I am late! Well I may have been a shiksa girl but both in high school and university I had a lot of Jewish friends and learned to make Yiddishe Momma’s chicken soup and deal with matzo balls very early in life . . .have not any made for awhile and with our winter coming I better have your very clear instructions by my side soonest . . . raining outside so the time is surely right 🙂 ! Oh one of my husbands taught me to make most meat patties with matzo meal and soda water . . . pretty successfully . . .

    1. Hahaha you are killing see!!! You are not late my dear 🙂 Shiksa! Only a girl with true Jewish friends would know and love that term 🙂 Meat patties with matzo meal that sounds killer!

  9. I’m also confused, Mila. You don’t say to put the chicken back into the pot with the vegetables. So if you throw out the first batch of broth, how does any chicken flavor get into the soup? What am I missing? I assume what you mean is after the first 25 minutes, you toss the crud-filled water and then start fresh with water, chicken, and veggies. (I’ve made lots of chicken soup in my lifetime–which is longer than yours…. My mom was also a master soup maker. I share your feelings about being close to her when I make one of her soups. She used to puree the vegetables and afdd them back to the soup–not a clear broth but a delicious one! Chad Sameach to you and your family.)

    1. Chad Sameach to you as well my dear 🙂 Yes OF COURSE you add the the chicken back in…I clearly type too fast for my own good 🙂 What an interesting technique your mom used!!! Making this soup somehow connects me to everything… even being plant based now…its the one thing I ache for when I am sick.

        1. Mila, do you cook the whole chicken as seen on the picture? My mom always cut it before making soup. Also, about kotletki: do you add bread crumbs or matzo meal to ground chicken?

          1. Hi Laura…funny you should ask 🙂 My mom used to always cut it up too… My in-laws leave it whole 🙂 So I actually ended up leaving it whole because that was how I was feeling that day. No rhyme or reason actually. As for kotletki, I used to put bread in, however recently I stopped and as long as you do not overcook them they turn out succulent and perfect.

  10. Mila, this looks wonderful. I am on chicken soup duty for second night Seder and just want to make sure I understand – The original broth that you make when you are simmering the whole chicken in water, do you discard that and use the cooked chicken and raw vegetables to make the new chicken broth?

    1. Yes, that is exactly it. Since at that point the chicken is only partially cooked, there is still plenty of flavor to extract. Remember the chicken really should be of the best quality. Once you get that and the ratio’s down…you are golden! Good luck Liz! Happy Passover to you and yours!

  11. It was a Mila Furman Seder at my house! I used your soup technique this year, Mila, and everyone raved. (Comments on brisket position got that recipe.) No parsley root available, but for the first time I did use parsnip. (My mom never did, to my knowledge–probably because she had to eat turnips and other root veggies during WWII and disliked them?!) I decided not to include my usual puréed vegetables this year, though I have them to add to purchased stock. The soup was a gorgeous golden color, just perfect and clear. I usually boost the soup with bouillon concentrate or stock but kept the water level lower, simmered it longer, and reduced it at the end. Perfection!!! Everyone wants the recipe. (Unfortunately I was too busy leading the Seder and getting food out to take pictures…bad me!)

    1. Next time please do see if you can find the parsley root, I swear it changes everything! It adds a sweetness and savory aspect that I have yet to find with anything else!

  12. Milochka! soup was soooooo good!!! I just made it for Rosh Hashannah on Sunday. Thanks for the recipe!

    1. Julia! Thank you for the kind words 🙂 I am soooooo glad it worked our for you!!!! And thank you for commenting!

  13. Hi Mila! I have a question…When you say simmer the soup do you mean first bring it to a boil and then simmer or start the soup on low? Also, how much salt did you use?

    1. Hi Randi! I always start it out bring it to a slow boil and then immediately turn it down to a simmer. You don’t want all that scum to break up so that’s why you don’t want a rolling boil. I always start with a tbsp or so of Kosher salt. Then I taste as I go

  14. This will be my first time using parsley roots. Do you use the whole vegetable or just the leafy tops? If yes, do you cut them up or leave whole?
    Thanks!

    1. I use just the roots mostly. If they are small I’ll add the leafy parts as well. Just make sure to wash them well! I leave the roots whole usually as I buy the thinner ones. But if I get the big ones I cut them in half. Let me know how you like it!

          1. Do you just break up the whole chicken after for the pieces to go in each bowl? Do you leave it in the broth or remove to cut meat up?

          2. I always just leave it in the broth and then we take it as we like it. I have always eaten the meat AFTER I ate the soup…I guess that’s just how we always ate it when I grew up 🙂 But you can certainly break it up and eat it in the soup as well. Whatever your heart desires 🙂

  15. Goodness, that got me in the feels. I’m full of flu, really craving chicken soup and found your site. I’m a Dad now but it reminded me of my mum, sadly past, and how she would look after me when I was sick. It’s nothing to do with food and everything to do with food! Thank you.

  16. Hello Mila!
    Please explain a bit about “flanken” in Chicken Soup. When I first visited your site and read about some soups, I thought you mentioned putting beef bones, called flanken to simmer in the broth. Later, rereading, I could not find it in the Matzo Ball Soup information, and therefore, thought I must have seen it in another of your recipes. Then I read somewhere that on a TV show, somebody beat Bobby Flay with Matzo Ball Soup by simmering beef bones to flavor the broth.
    Would you please comment on this?
    Thank you

    1. I personally never use flanken. I know that my grandma used to make “yuh” which is made with beef. But a chicken soup was strictly made out of chicken 🙂

  17. I’m currently making your soup! I couldn’t find parsley root, so I left it out. In the future, is there a suitable substitute? Thanks!

      1. Thank you for this amazing recipe! Everyone LOVED it. The matzo balls were perfect! Everything was perfect!

          1. This one served about 8. I always make 2 pots of soup because it freezes easily if I have leftovers.

      2. I couldn’t find parsley root, but I did throw a handful of parsley in with the rest of the the veggies, and it was delicious!

        I’m on my second batch right now! This is my new favorite chicken soup recipe.

    1. No. The carrot is there for massive flavor! You don’t have to eat the carrot but the flavor it will give is amazing!

  18. You make chicken soup exactly the way my mother made it…except she didn’t use fill. Parsley root is difficult to find now but she used it.
    Also your kneidlech recipe is same. I make it & sometimes bake it into a Kazel which is also good. Very comforting good. Like you it brings back a lot of memories. Thank you!!

    1. Linda, comments like yours are the exact reason I started blogging so many years ago. Thank you for the kind and warm words.

        1. Mila, the Linda that left a comment mentioned Kazel. When I was googling Kazel, it took me here to her comment on your Chicken Soup blog. So I don’t imagine you have any way to get Linda’s permission to let me get in touch wither about Kazel?

  19. We have the same idiom about the hands in Farsi, “dast-et dard nakoneh” may your hands not hurt. Interesting to see that another culture/language shares it!

    Going to make the soup this evening and show my fever who is boss.

      1. Where has this recipe been all my life!? My teen couldn’t stop eating it. I have to admit, I was skeptical, but this was the best, clearest, cleanest broth I’ve ever made. Thank you!

          1. What an amazing broth. I made this soup yesterday for my mum who cannot easily swallow chicken meat. She loved it and so did the family. Thank you. I wonder if we can use lamb or fish with the same broth method?

          2. With fish you definitely can. With lamb you would really need a longer cooking time to extract all its flavor but it would still be the same method! Thanks for the lovely comments!

  20. Sounds wonderful! My mother used to skim the fat and “crud” off while it cooked. Then no need to throw out the first batch. She then put it in the fridge overnight. The fat comes to the top. She then removed the fat. There was little to no grease left so the flavor was great while not being greasy! YUMMY!!

  21. Hi. I am using your recipe for my soup today and just wondering by leaving the chicken in the soup for 2 hours doesn’t it break apart and then you have to get all the bones out? I usually only leave it in for 1 hour and then take it out and take all the chicken off bones, skin, etc and discard and break up the chicken for later, or put it back in the pot to cook more. What are you thoughts?

    1. You roll them out then freeze on a sheet pan lined with parchment. Then you thaw them out and cook like you normally would 😉

      1. GAME CHANGER. I’ve only thought to freeze after being cooked. I did it once with success and once as a failure and I’m not sure what I did differently. Never even thought to cook them raw/frozen! So as the soup is simmering, put them in?

  22. Yours is my go-to for homemade chicken soup with matzoballs! Colds, sniffles? Make matzoball soup! Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur. Passover? Make matzoball soup! Dill in the matzoball is delicious! The parsley root is amazing! Yummmmmmm!

    1. Awwwww Deanne thank you so much!!! That is the best part of my day 🙂 This is the recipe most nearest and dearest to my heart 🙂 Thank you!

  23. Thank you for this heart felt recipe which is so beautiful to read but also teaches me about the matzo balls which I had not heard about (My mother used to make just yeasted ball dough cooked in a beef broth, but they didn’t have the spices)
    The chicken stock is cooking now. Thank you for sharing this.

  24. Okay, so I made my chicken soup. Ate it and loved it. I froze the rest of the chicken soup. Now I want it for Passover, but there are no carrots to go in it. How would I cook the carrots when the soup is already made?

  25. Hi Mila! I can’t wait to try this recipe out. I just had a question on the last few steps. Once you’ve created your stock, do you add fresh vegetables + matzo balls to the strained stock? Or do you simply serve the vegetables that were used to create the stock? Thank you!!

  26. You know what’s a great recipe? When you make the food and it tastes so good that you want to hug the person that gave it to you and I Mila want to give you a great big hug. This is a labor of love and we all need a bit more love right now. Thank you for your story and your guidance and a soup 10 times better than Katz’ Deli. Stay Safe!

    1. OMG This is the best comment of the day!!!! Sharing on instagram! Thank you so much for this!!!!!!

  27. Please clarify something for me…i just made the soup and the matzo balls. today is tuesday and the holiday is Friday Night. Do i put the cooked matzo balls in the soup and freeze the whole thing till Friday, including veggies, chicken, bones, parsley and dill?

    1. You need to freeze the matzoballs BEFORE COOKING THEM. Seperately from the soup. The soup you freeze with everything in it yes. Good luck!!!

  28. I’ve made it for several people, and we all LOVE it. I’ve never had a better homemade soup, thank you!!!

    1. Hi! You can do it in a pot of simmering broth! But I recommend you freeze them BEFORE boiling them! They will preserve better!

  29. I guess this post is a mini-thesis, on making clear chicken soup. But, it is an obsession with me. And, the way I think about it, perhaps you don’t know who your great or great-great grand-parents are. But, you can almost bet that your family soup recipe at least partially derives from them!

    I agree with most of your recipe, especially the tip that carrot & parsley tops are edible and add to the flavor of genuine Jewish penicillin. However, I am surprised that your mother did not add celery, or the celery green leaves in the heart of the celery stalk. They also add great flavor. I personally cannot imagine chicken soup without celery and dill. Personaly, I think the parsley is unnecessary if you are adding the carrot & parsnip tops. It will add far less flavor than those tops and the dill.

    Also, aside for the ratio of water to the other ingredients, there is the importance of using the right water. We lived in rural central NJ, and our water came from a well. Nothing wrong with the water for drinking. But, it contained a fair amount of iron or other minerals. It was not enough to stain clothes, etc. But, compare to NY city water, where my mother grew up, it was a higher mineral content that would result in sort of grayish broth rather than the pure gold of NYC soup. So, my mother tried making the soup using distilled water meant for steam irons…and that became her regimin from then on…perfect liquid gold soup.

    As for the fat, I do agree that some is necessary, but I would not leave it all. 1/4 inch of fat on top of the pot is way too much. As for the cooking process, I think it is crazy to boil the chick twice, discarding the initial broth, just to get rid of the scum. The appropriate thing to do is watch the pot as the scum forms, and skim it off and keep skimming until no more scum forms. It only takes 5-10 minutes. And, the pot should just be simmering at this point. The reason why the scum floats is because it is coated with the lighter than water fat. If the pot is at a rolling boil, that will separate the congealed blood from the fat, and the scum will sink, and be impossible to remove from the broth, except with a “french cap” or similar filter. I guess, at that point, the only other option would be your drain and re-boil method…which, again, I think is a waste of good flavors going down the drain.

    Last comments are: Parsnips, aside for flavor, are good in another way. While they have a texture similar to cooked potatoes, which is welcome, they do not add starch that clouds the soup like potatoes. The moment I see a recipe for chicken soup that includes potatoes as an ingredient, that’s when I stop reading the recipe.

    Two more hints: First, while it may seem like unusual spices to add to chicken soup, pinches of dry thyme & nutmeg really enhance it. In the proper quantity, you don’t taste that pumpkin pie flavor of nutmeg, but 1/4 to 1/2 tsp works wonders by adding a sort of slight sweetness to the broth.

    Finally, the noodles should not be cooked in the soup. or left to sit in the soup while stored in the refrigerator. Aside for the noodles getting mushier as they sit in the broth, this will also cloud the broth. Now I know why granny stored the broth, the cooked chicken, the cooked vegetables and the cooked noodles in separate covered bowls in her refrigerator. In fact, it was about all she had in her fridge! When she served the soup, she would put some cold noodles and vegetables in each person’s bowl, and cover it with boiling broth…and the broth stayed clear & golden.

    Sorry about the long post…but, like you, chicken soup is a personal obsession! That’s not to say that I don’t also like thick soups that are more like stews. But, “Jewish Penicillin” is in a class all its own..

  30. Vivien (and Mila). I find that putting dill in the soup early and boiling it adds a bit of bitterness. I usually add fresh dill into the just-finished soup, close the lid and let it infuse the stock. This way the taste of dill is “clearer” and fresher. Of course, you can add freshly chopped dill to the bowls when serving. This way everyone is happy: those who like dill and those who don’t care for it.

  31. Not only is this an unorthodox approach to cooking Jewish chicken soup, it’s not very classically Jewish, either. Why would a traditional recipe suggest Amish chicken instead of kosher chicken? There are many other recipes that one can easily find that will result in more delicious Jewish chicken soup than this one. The excessive narrative prior to the recipe is unnecessary, boring and self-absorbed.

    1. Robyn…I usually do not respond to such comments. But THIS IS A BLOG. And it is my blog. The narrative you so negatively discuss, and claim us boring and self absorbed, is the story of why and how I love this recipe so much. It was made by two women in my life who I love more than anyone else. Sadly, they are no longer in my life. This blog is dedicated to people who enjoy great recipes that I HAVE MADE with my family. I choose to be as orthodox or unorthodox as I like, because I can. Feel free to go use another recipe. If there is anything here that does not suit your likings, feel free to unsubscribe. Thanks.

    2. WOW. Your comment is unnecessary, boring, and self-absorbed.

      Recipes and their ingredients are allowed to evolve based on available ingredients and new information. I’m assuming you don’t still prepare food as cavemen did, do you?

      My gosh. Whether you agree with this recipe or not, it’s lovingly provided to you free of charge. Have some respect for the one who shares this gift of memory and nourishment.

  32. What I saw in the picture was not parsley root. They were parsnips. They’re also good in chicken soup, but quite different than parsley root which is shaped more like a baseball.

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