Grandma Sylivia’s Chicken Soup and Kneidels
I’ve been clinging onto a stinky cold for the best part of a week and for me there is no better cure than the Jewish penicillin itself, Chicken Soup… specifically my grandma Sylvia’s Chicken Soup
Sylvia was an amazing soup maker, there was always soup at Grandmas on Sunday and there are three Grandma Syliva soups that I’ve now shared with you, I kicked off with the watercress and turnip soup and last week I made the carot and orange soup, but this week is the piece-de-resistance.
As it happens i’ve never actually made proper chicken soup before but I remember this golden elixir served with the softest fluffiest kneidels, at grandmas house on special occasions and I was lucky that my cousin Beatrice had the recipe to share with me.
Whilst there are a number of stages and, like all good things, it takes a little time
it’s actually very simple to make and the results are quite frankly, stinky cold defyingly phenomenal.
For the chicken soup:
• 1 whole large chicken
• 1.5l – 2l water (or the amount of water to just cover the breast in the pot
• 1 onion – quartered
• 1 leek – roughly chopped
• 1 carrot – roughly chopped
• 1 stick celery – roughly chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 6 or 7 peppercorns
• 1 small bunch parsley
• 1 chicken stock cube or 1 heaped teaspoon chicken bouillon powder
For the kneidlach:
• 80ml Olive Oil
• 120ml Cold water
• 2 large eggs – lightly beaten
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 120g matzo meal
Start with the chicken soup:
Add the whole chicken to a large pan and pour over enough water to just cover the breastbone. Add the onion, leek, carrot, celery, bay-leaf, parsley and peppercorns. Turn on the heat and bring to the boil.
When it starts boiling skim off the scum that comes to surface and discard. Add either a spoonful of chicken bullion or a stock cube. Simmer with lid mostly on for 90 minutes. Then turn off the heat and leave to cool with bird still in the water.
Meanwhile, make the kneidlach:
Place all the ingredients into a bowl and mix well. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least an hour. Moisten hands and form the mixture into balls. Add balls to a pot of salted boiling water, and then simmer, covered, for 15 minutes.
Once the soup is cool, strain it through a fine sieve and discard the vegetables but keep the chicken and shred it. Pour the liquid back into the pot and add the shredded chicken, some freshly sliced carrots and heat through. Carefully add the steamed kneidlach to the chicken soup as it warms through for a final 15 minutes.
For more soups, check these out on Dom in the Kitchen.
Eat and of course, enjoy!
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