A good, step-by-step basic recipe for chicken
soup, including a variation for Italian chicken soup.
Basic Chicken Soup
1 (5 to 6-pound) fowl, or 7 to 8-pounds
of broilers, with neck and all giblets except liver
10 to 12 cups water, as needed
2 medium carrots, scraped and quartered
2 or 3 celery stalks with leaves, whole or cut in half
1 medium yellow onion, whole or cut in half, peeled or unpeeled
3 parsley sprigs, preferably the flat Italian type
8 to 10 black peppercorns
2 to 3 teaspoons coarse salt or 1 to 2 teaspoons table salt,
or to taste
- Clean, trim and quarter the chicken. Place
quartered chicken in a close-fitting 5-quart soup pot. A whole
chicken should fit into a 6 to 7-quart pot. Add 10 cups water
if you use broilers or 12 cups if you use a fowl. Water should
cover chicken. Cover pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to a slow
simmer and skim foam as it rises to the surface. Soup should
cook at a simmer.
- When foam subsides, add all remaining
ingredients with only 1 teaspoonful of salt. Cook chicken until
it is loosened from the bone. If chicken is quartered, allow
1 1/4 hours for cooking broilers and 2 1/2 to 3 hours for a fowl.
If you cook the chickens whole, allow an extra 15 minutes for
broilers and 30 minutes for the fowl. Add more water during cooking
if chicken is not seven-eighths covered. Turn chicken 2 to 3
times during cooking. Add salt gradually, tasting as the soup
progresses.
- Remove chicken, giblets, and bones and
set aside. Pour soup through a sieve, rinse pot, and then return
soup to pot if it is to be served immediately. Skim fat from
surface of soup if it is to be served without being stored.
- Soup can be prepared in advance up to
this point. If you are going to store the soup, strain it over
a bowl but do not skim. Cool thoroughly, uncovered, then cover
and place in refrigerator. Store wrapped chicken separately in
the refrigerator. Discard (or nibble on) giblets, bones, and
soup vegetables. Chicken can be reheated in soup, either in quarters
with bones and skins for a lusty dish, or trimmed of bones and
skin and cut into smaller, easily spooned pieces.
Makes 4 to 6 main course servings.
Italian Variation:
Ingredients for basic chicken soup
4 to 6 whole cloves
2 canned Italian plum tomatoes (about 1/3 of a 14 1/2-ounce can)
2 small or 1 large bay leaf
2 garlic cloves (optional)
2 small leeks, white and green portions (optional)
1 medium boiling potato, peeled (optional)
4 to 5 large sage leaves, or 1 sage sprig (optional)
- Insert cloves into the onion called for
in the basic recipe. Add with tomatoes and bay leaves, along
with vegetables and sage, and proceed with basic recipe.
Makes 6 to 8 servings.
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