I’m sick this week. And from a food standpoint that means it’s time to make chicken soup. I was raised in a somewhat observant Jewish household. In Jewish households chicken soup is the go-to cure-all for pretty much everything. It’s certainly been my go-to my whole life for everything from cold and flu to mild sprains to bad moods. This is a very basic chicken soup recipe, but basic is all you need when it comes to chicken soup. This is not something to get fancy with. It’s the ultimate comfort food, keep it simple and make a bunch of it.

Chicken Soup:
1 whole chicken – if you can get a kosher chicken, get one. Or a free range organic chicken, or a stewing hen. But it must be a whole bird. I’ll explain in a moment.
2 sweet onions, chopped
5 ribs of celery, washed and chopped
1 bunch of young carrots, with greens (not those useless bagged “baby carrots sold in plastic bags). Peel and chop the carrots, rinse and chop and handful or two of the greens
3 parsnips (if you’re not familiar with parsnips, they’ll be by the carrots in the produce section. They look like fat white carrots. Also, shame on you for not being familiar with parsnips, but we’re going to fix that right now). Peeled and chopped.
Olive or vegetable oil (you may not need it, but have some on hand).
Your biggest pot.

Go into the cavity of the chicken and look for large lumps of fat clinging to the skin just inside of the cavity opening.

Get as much of that out of the chicken as you can, and throw it into the bottom of the pan on medium heat. This is called schmaltz (the rendered fat, I mean). It’s the Jewish version of bacon fat. Watch it melt down. It won’t melt completely, you’ll have a bit of membrane and skin left. You can leave that or not (I leave it). This is why you need a whole chicken – you want that fat. It makes everything better.

Add your onions to the schmaltz and saute over medium heat until they’re translucent. If you don’t have enough schmaltz (depends on how fatty your chicken was) supplement with olive oil or vegetable oil.
Once the onions are translucent, add in the celery, carrots, and parsnips. Saute over medium heat until you start seeing some browning – maybe 10 minutes.

Add in ~ 1Tb of kosher salt and the chopped carrot greens and cook for another few minutes, until things are beginning to stick to the pan.
While the vegetables are sauteing, break down the chicken.
I’m not going to post photos of breaking down a chicken. There are roughly a billion videos of that on You-Tube. Also, it’s not hard to do:
Grab a leg at each end. Twist until the joint pops. Cut it off. Repeat with the other leg, thighs, and wings. Split the breast down the center. Cut the back off the breast.
When you’re veggies are beginning to brown and stick bring your pot over to the sink. Put some water in the bottom of the pan and scrape up the burned bits, then add in the chicken pieces. Fill the pot up so that the chicken is covered by about two inches of water.
Bring it to a boil and then down to a simmer. Simmer covered for at least two hours (the longer the better).

Remove the chicken from the pot, shred the meat and throw away the bones and skin. Put the meat back in the pot. Adjust salt to taste.
That’s it. Basic chicken soup. A lot of high-brow cooks will tell you to strain the fat off. I disagree. The fat is what makes this soup medicinal. Hot chicken soup with some globs of fat will cut through sinus pressure and stuffiness. It will soothe a sore throat, and aching joints. You want the richness from the fat. Trust me on this one.
By itself, this soup is very good. You can add noodles, or dumplings, or matzah balls to get some starch in there. I’ll have a post on matzah balls as we get closer to Passover (and how to make them float – sorry Mom).
To get really rich chicken soup add in some chicken feet (or duck feet if you can get them). Just take them out before serving, they freak out a lot of the Goyim.