Super Simple Modern Style Homemade Chicken Soup

One of my favorites things on a rainy day is a nice big steaming comforting bowl of homemade chicken soup. The aroma of chicken soup simmering takes me back to childhood.  Mom made the best soups! There is always so much more flavor in soups you make at home!  

Soup is an easy food to prepare. This super simple modern style chicken soup doesn't start out with a whole chicken.  Yes, I can break a whole chicken down to make it, but it's not my favorite thing to do.  I love using chicken thighs with the bone in and skin on because there is a lot more flavor in those parts. Thigh meat doesn't dry out as easily as white meat.  

Chicken soup should have some of the chicken fat in it since fat is flavor.  Small amounts of healthy fat will keep the hunger pangs away longer and brains do need some fat to work well also. The best and easiest way to remove the excess fat is to chill the soup overnight. Fat congeals to a layer on top of the broth and which can easily be lifted off.  When the soup is done it's easy to pull the chicken pieces out to remove the skin and bones and cut into spoon-size pieces. This too can be done the next day or before serving. Controlling the sodium and flavor profile is better in scratch-made food. Once you prepare homemade soup your palate will tell you there is no going backed to canned soups. 

Easy Modern Style Homemade Chicken Soup

Easy Modern Style Homemade Chicken Soup

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

1 large white onion

4 large carrots

3 large celery stalks

1 bunch of fresh parsley  

2 bay leaves

1 teaspoon dry tarragon 

1 teaspoon dry dill 

1/2 teaspoon dry thyme 

1 teaspoon Kosher salt (to start)

1/2 teaspoon finely ground white (or black) pepper

2 quarts of water or chicken stock

2 teaspoon flavorless cooking oil

2 pounds average sized chickens thighs (preferably with bone and skin on)*

1/2 cup uncooked Israeli couscous

6-quart size Dutch oven or stock pot

Fresh carrots with tops

Preparation

Clean and peel carrots, chop into smaller dice.  Imagine the pieces on your spoon eating to judge size you prefer.  Scrub and chop dice celery. Set carrots and celery aside.   Peel and dice the onion into a medium to small dice.   Chop the parsley fine including the stems.  If you don't like chopping the stems, then take the stems into a bunch and tie with cotton kitchen twine for easy removal.  The parsley stems add a lot of heartiness to add to the finished soup.

White Onions

Into the stock pot or Dutch oven add the flavorless oil and on medium heat sweat the onion, carrots, and celery for a minute or two.  Next add the dried tarragon, dill, stir to bring those herbs back to life. Add the 2 bay leaves (I happen to use dried bay) and the water.

I prefer to use the chicken thighs with the skin and bone in. *If you use boneless and skinless thigh, then you can cut those into bite-sized pieces before adding to the soup base. Add the chicken to the pot and over a very low flame heat to a simmer for 60 minutes minimum.  

Check for flavor.  This is where you can adjust the salt and pepper.  If you've used the bone in chicken thighs, remove them from the pot and cut or shred the meat to small pieces.   

 If you want a heartier broth, let is simmer lid off a bit at this point to reduce the volume.

Sweating the carrots, celery, onions and herbs

Finishing

I can be lazy or in a hurry cook some days so I often just add the uncooked Israeli couscous to the stock pot and cook for about 10 minutes.  I find that adding the couscous works fine because the larger Israeli type stays round and firm and doesn't cloud the broth.   Any other soup noodle or rice should be cooked separately and just added to the bowl before ladling in the soup.

Hungarian Székely Gulyás

This popular Eastern European dish is said to have been originally created in the town of Szeged which is the third largest city in Hungary, others believe that this dish was named after the famous Hungarian writer, and screen writer János Székely.

The name may sound unusual or complicated but it's a very simple to make pork and sauerkraut stew. This recipe version is one that Mom used to make on occasion during the winter.   My brother and I both loved this stew when she served it and later on my family, even my picky kids, loved it.

One of the best things about this recipe is the pure simplicity of a few ingredients left to simmer and mellow into an extraordinary blend of aromas and flavors. These ingredients really do work well even if at the outset you don't think it would. (Like me!)  I was very surprised that Mom added the sour cream to this dish the first time, but it works!  This dish is also fine without the sour cream but it does enhance the dish with a richer broth.  The sauerkraut from the cooking loses some of it's bite and mellows into a delicious shredded sauce.

If case you don't know much about Hungarian paprika, it has more flavor than the run of the mill brands in many stores labeled as just "paprika".  It's much easier to find now than it was years ago.   The Hot paprika can pack a good bit of heat so...add slowly if you're not a spicy food lover.  If you're familiar with the Scoville Scale  of peppers,  Hungarian Hot Paprika is around 500 while ancho chilis are about 1500 Scoville units and cayenne pepper is up around 30,000 to 50,000 Scoville units. By contrast the Sweet paprika is rated at 0 for heat on the Scoville Scale.

I firmly believe that when you cook you should prepare recipes to your family's taste.   If you don't like spicy...please by all means use just the Sweet paprika but 2 Tablespoons instead of the 1 Tablespoon of each type as listed in the recipe.  If you love spicy....go ahead and go all Hot paprika.

A great addition to this recipe would be to substitute a few slices of diced bacon in lieu the oil to brown the meat. If you use the bacon, cook that till almost crisp then remove the pieces from the Dutch oven before adding the meat so there will be no chance of the bacon pieces becoming overdone or blackened.

This is a great weeknight meal since you can easily prepare this ahead on the weekend and serve later.  Like most stews and soups the flavor improves as it sits so the ingredients absorb all the flavors from each other.

Hungarian Székely Gulyás  

Hungarian Székely Gulyás 

Serves 4 - 6

Ingredients

2 pounds pork, trimmed and cubed
1 large white onion, coarsely chopped
2 Tablespoons of flavorless cooking oil
2 pounds sauerkraut either fresh or in a bag
1 Tablespoon Sweet Hungarian Paprika
1 Tablespoon Hot Hungarian Paprika  (for not spicy all sweet paprika instead)
1/2 cup sour cream
Salt
Pepper

Fresh Sauerkraut

Preparation

Trim and cube the pork into 1 inch cubes.  Cut onion into a course chop.  Since this will cook down and blend into the sauerkraut the pieces need not be small.

Drain the sauerkraut and reserve the juice.  I always like to check for salt and acidity before using the sauerkraut in cooking.  If the sauerkraut is too salty, go ahead and give a quick rinse.  I like to save that juice to add more flavor if needed later.  If the sauerkraut is one you could eat as is...go ahead and add the juices to the pot when it's time to add the sauerkraut.

                                                                                         

Hungarian Paprika comes in both Hot or Sweet varieties
Like a bit of heat in your food?
Use the Hot!  But add a little at a time it has good amount of heat

 Cooking

Heat a Dutch oven and then add the oil to heat till it shimmers.  Slowly, and in batches add the pork cubes making sure their surface is dry so they brown a bit to add even more flavor.  As they brown remove each batch to a plate before adding more. Next add the onion and sauté until just starting to brown.  Return the pork cubes to the pot, add the sauerkraut plus the paprika and just a bit of black pepper. (If you did the bacon instead of oil add it back now.) You can always adjust salt and pepper later.

Add the sauerkraut and use as liquid either the kraut juice or some water so the meat will stew just to barely cover things.  Cook covered over low heat and check the meat for tenderness in 50 minutes.  It will probably take longer than that to finish.  Continue cooking the pork is very tender and the meat almost starts shredding.

Székely Gulyás ready to simmer.
Notice it's not totally covered in liquid.

If you have made the stew ahead, when your ready to serve heat to serving temperature.  Now add the sour cream and stir well.  I have also completed this dish with the sour cream addition and then stored overnight before serving.  If you don't like sour cream this dish still has nice flavor without the addition.

I prefer serving this in bowls with some nice crusty bread or biscuits on the side.

Egyűnk!   (Let's eat!)

As always love to hear your comments and suggestions on all recipes.