I (heart) Chicken Soup

The ability to make chicken soup is like a right of passage. My grandmothers both made delicious chicken soup and when I was living in LA a couple of years ago, the first thing my mom did when she came out to visit was to make a vat of chicken soup for me to have on hand.

Of all the chicken soups I have ever had, no one’s is better than my mom Patsy’s. Every family meal at my parent’s house begins with a bowl of chicken soup. There are jars of frozen soup in my freezer, my brother and sister-in-law’s freezer, my parents’ freezer, even the freezer at the cottage. You just never know when you may have an emergency on your hands that can only be helped by a bowl of chicken soup.

Chicken soup is more than just a traditional Jewish remedy. Bone broth is actually a superfood, densely packed with vitamins, minerals, fats and proteins in a form that requires no digestive strength from your body to break down. It alkalanizes your system which lends to a healing internal environment and perhaps more important than any of these things- it is warming and comforting.

With the blistery Winter upon us, and that we are all recovering from the holidays, make a batch now, enjoy some today and put the rest in the freezer for a quick, easy, healing, light meal. Here is my mom’s super powered soup recipe with a few additions by me. Click here for my video demo!

Momma Patsy’s Amazing Chicken Soup

1 chicken cut in 8, skin removed.  Make sure you get the back. For a more economical version you can ask your butcher for a couple of chicken carcasses. You may want some extra pieces of white meat with the bone for cutting up later and eating with the soup or using for sandwiches
6  large carrots peeled and cut in 1/2 inch pieces
2  parsnips peeled and cut
1  onion cut in 4
1 bunch fresh dill
1 bunch fresh parsley
2 zucchinis sliced
1  whole garlic bulb-  cloves peeled
4 celery stalks, sliced in 1 inch pieces
2-3 leeks
1 Tbs  apple cider vinegar (optional- helps draw minerals out of the bones)
2 Tbs Coconut Oil (to help absorption of fat soluble vitamins and anti-microbial properties
2 inches, sliced ginger root (anti-inflammatory properties and warming)
8 cups of water or until pot is full
Salt and pepper to taste.

Note: Amount of vegetables depends on how much you can fit in the pot. You can use as much as will fit.

• Put the chicken and/or bones in a pot covered in cold water and bring to a boil (this is to remove and cook away the blood and icky stuff). If using bones leftover for a roast chicken or turkey, you can skip this step.
  
• Pour out the water, rinse the chicken, clean the pot.
• Put chicken and everything else into the pot including about 8 cups of water, salt and pepper.
• Bring to a boil, lower heat to a simmer for at least 2 hours or up to 8. The longer you simmer the soup- the more concentrated the healing benefits. You want the soup to be gelatinous when it is cooled- this gelatin is very soothing to the digestive tract.
• Let it cool down and pour through strainer.
• Remove from strainer any chicken, carrots or other boiled veggies you wish to add back in to your soup
• Place in fridge over night to allow fat to settle on the top
• Skim fat off surface of soup with a spoon and paper towel
• Heat and serve.

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